My Adventure with Olimar
by sarsars
Summary: Jason Smith, an average 14-year old boy, suddenly finds himself sucked into the game "Pikmin" and meets the famed Captain Olimar. As his adventure unfolds, Jason realizes the Pikmin planet is not how it used to be. He even has his own stalker! A snake.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Alright; you will never believe what I'm going to explain to you. I barely believe it myself. Do you want to know? (My god, you'll think I'm crazy) Okay...

...are you sure you do?

All right! Jeesh! No need to swear! I'll tell you. You'll never believe me, but I'll tell you.

...I went inside a video game.

...I told you! I told you that you'd never believe me! Man! Now I feel foolish! It felt so real, though. It might have been a dream, but it felt so real! See, I even have the scar from one of the battles that we did!

...What video game, you ask? Well, I went inside my television and met Captain Olimar. You know, Captain Olimar? Super Smash Bros Brawl? Pikmin? Pikmin 2? The soon-to-be-announced Pikmin 3? That Captain Olimar!

Well at least you know who I'm talking about. You still don't believe me, though.

...Don't lie. I can see the sides of your lips edging up into a smile. Don't deny it; you don't believe me at all! Well, fine. I won't tell you... but I have to tell someone, or I'll go mad.

Fine, I'll tell you, but if you start laughing I swear that I'll leave. Okay? You good? Sit down. I have a story to tell you.

...I said sit down! Jeesh, don't be immature! It's like talking to a child.

Again, no need to swear.

Alright, you're good. I'm good. I'm going to tell you a story. This story might seem impossible, but I believe that it happened. My journey is about...

...my adventure with Olimar...


	2. Chapter 1: The First Meeting

Chapter 1: The First Meeting

It all started with that lightning storm that happened yesterday. I was stupid enough to pop in Pikmin in my Wii. I turned it on, went to the Game Channel, and clicked Start. The title screen showed up. I deleted my record of 20 days (I know, I suck) and started a new game. The opening cinema showed up on the screen, showing how Olimar crash landed on the Pikmin Planet, and that's when it happened.

BOOM! Lightning struck right next to my house. I freaked out and grabbed my controller, the Wii, and the television at the same time. Suddenly, another lightning bolt struck and I was somehow sucked into the game.

I know this because, when I woke up, I saw THE Captain Olimar, unconscious, right next to me. I freaked out immediately, as I had no idea if this was real or not. I pinched myself and felt the pain, but I didn't wake up. I realized that this must not be a dream or that I was in an extremely deep sleep. I got onto my feet and realized that I was as tiny as Captain Olimar. I was exactly his size, as I soon found up when he woke up, and his ship was three times the size of me. I held my head to stop myself from fainting again.

This was when Captain Olimar himself woke up. He jumped up and I ran behind the rocket, being careful not to touch it because, from the various times I played around during the first day, of the sparks that occasionally erupt from the ship. I heard Captain Olimar jump up and down, but what I didn't expect, and nearly wet my pants when I heard it, was him speaking.

"Oh no! No! My precious ship!" He said with pain in his voice. "My beloved ship. Now how will I ever get home? This cannot be happening."

"He can talk," I whispered. "Of all the bloody things, he can talk."

I looked out from behind the ship and saw his face, or what would have been his face without the helmet, in his arms. I suddenly realized that I was wearing a spacesuit as well; one exactly like Olimar's. This was, possibly, the strangest thing that had happened. I felt my own clothes under the spacesuit, but this suit that had suddenly appeared on my own body made this entire journey confusing.

I looked out from the ship again and saw Captain Olimar turn around and decide to explore. I did not want to be trapped in this place alone, so I followed him and hoped not to scare him.

Needless to say, I failed.

He heard me coming and turned around. He nearly had a heart attack, but we both jumped into the air in shock.

"Who are you?" He asked. "When did you get here?"

I didn't know how to react. I didn't even know how his voice could go through both his and my suits. I didn't even know if this atmosphere actually allowed sound. I decided to give it a shot and said, "After you did."

He paused, shocked, and pondered this. "How?" he asked.

"I honestly have no idea. I do, however, know exactly who you are. You are Captain Olimar, one of Hocotate Freight's highest workers. You crash landed here in your rocket, the S.S. Dolphin, after hitting a meteor." I felt a little embarrassed at saying this, but it only made him more confused.

"How do you know who I am?" He asked.

I opened my mouth to say something, but paused. I didn't want to tell him too much. I didn't want to tell him that he didn't exist in real life. At the moment I was feeling a bit uneasy about this being real, but I put those feeling aside and shook the question off. I had played through the game before, even though I sucked, so I knew exactly what to do. I motioned for him to turn around, but he remained where he was, staring at me.

"I repeat, how do you know who I am?" He asked.

"It doesn't matter at the moment. Check your life supply. You have only thirty days, correct?" I said, hoping to gain his trust.

He looked at the red pack on his back and looked up at me in surprise. "How did you know? Are you a god?"

"I am no good, but I am here to help." I decided to wing it as I went. There was no way that I could plan anything too far in advanced. "Listen, just trust me. I know how you can get your ship parts back. You won't believe me today, but I hope I'll gain my trust."

"How can I trust you when I don't even know who you are." He said, still standing his ground.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, wondering if Captain Olimar would ever turn around and notice the red pikmin's onion just a few feet behind him. I sighed and said, "My name is Jason Smith, a simple fourteen year old boy. Is that good enough for you? Now, for God's sakes, turn around!"

"Well, then, Jason, I-"

"Turn around!" I demanded, interrupting him.

He looked shocked, but obeyed and turned around, seeing the red onion behind him. He looked at the ground and I could swear I saw a purple cloud of frustration above his head.

Anyway, I walked up to him and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. We walked together towards the onion and I touched it. The flower on the top suddenly began spinning and I walked backwards out of the circle. Olimar, however, looked at it with confusion.

His mistake. It popped out of the ground and turned bright red. Olimar was sent flying backwards and flipped over four times before landing on his back.

I laughed. I am serious. Despite the strange situation, the sight of Olimar being dazed from something so silly was hilarious. I fell on the ground because I was laughing so hard. He got up and shook his head. He glared at me, but I continued laughing.

I heard a familiar plop and stopped laughing long enough to see the red pikmin seed pop out. I remembered some strategy about only having flower pikmin after the first day, and saw Olimar looking at the sprout strangely. I got up and pushed him back, causing him to fall over again. I picked him up and, again, he glared at me.

"Listen, this might go well with your research. Just trust me on this. Wait five or ten minutes before you pluck this sprout." I said.

"Pluck it? I'm supposed to pluck it?" He was confused. I told him to trust me.

We waited five or ten minutes without speaking. I thought it was extremely boring and awkward, but I found the time doing nothing to be peaceful. I noticed some small bugs flying around the flowers, the extremely large leaves falling from the trees above, and the flowers blooming. It was very peaceful and it gave me time to think. I decided to just go along with whatever is thrown at me. If I was right, and this entire thing would have been the exact game, then I knew exactly what I would do. If Captain Olimar trusted me, we would have two people to work together, which meant that we could multitask.

As all of this was going through my head, I noticed that Captain Olimar was writing in a journel. He looked at his ship and wrote, looked at the onion and wrote, looked at the plants and wrote, looked at me, glared, and wrote, and looked at the sprout and wrote. I had a feeling that it would be hard to earn his trust. He looked at the sprout again and called out to me.

"What is it?" I asked. I saw the sprout had changed from a leaf to a bud and said, "so?" I realized that, though this was normal with me, Captain Olimar had, technically, never experienced it. "Oh! I believe that the sprout sucks nutrients from the ground, so it grows more powerful. It'll change to a flower, the strongest, eventually. That's why I had you wait. If you want to get out of here faster, you'll need strong pikmin."

"I find it strange how the sun has yet to move. It's been in that position since I got here." Captain Olimar said, staring at the sky. I wondered if he had heard me.

"We can only do this today. Once we get the e-" I paused. He looked at me strangely, but I bypassed the word and continued. "The day ends, we won't have this much time to wait for p-" I paused again, not wanting to steal his copyrighted name. "Sprout to flower. We'll have to do it old fashioned ways."

"Old fashioned ways?" He asked.

"You'll see." I winked slyly at him. He looked at me strangely and I sighed. "Follow me." I said and began climbing up the tree stump that sloped up. Captain Olimar shrugged and followed me. I pointed at the working engine and he gasped.

"My engine! With this part, I'll be able to escape the planet's surface. Luck is on my side!" He said. I remembered him saying that in his journal when you actually see the engine. I thought it was a strange coincidence. Anyway, while we were looking at the engine, the pikmin had flowered. I pointed this out and we walked towards it. I allowed him to pluck it, so he did. The flowered pikmin popped out and stared at him. He took three steps forward; the pikmin took three steps forward. He turned around; the pikmin mirrored him.

"So," I said, feeling proud and excited. "What will you call it?"

"I think I'll call it a flowermin-" He began to say, but I yelled out:

"Wrong! Wrong! Terribly wrong! Call it pikmin!"

He looked confused. "It does sound better." He said. He shrugged and said, "Very well. Pikmin. It looks cute."

I sighed and told Olimar what to do. He threw the pikmin at the pellet poesies and gathered them, but I whistled them before the got to the onion. We walked over and got the other two pellets hidden in different places and let the pikmin get all four pellets within a few seconds. After this, we waited for ten more minutes until the pikmin flowered. We plucked them all, got them to carry the 5-pellet, let those pikmin flower and got all 14 pikmin to push the box. When the box was pushed, Olimar actually hugged his engine.

"Creepy..." I said and looked at the pikmin, who gave me a blank look. I sighed and had the pikmin follow me up the box. I got all of the pikmin into the arena on the stump and got all of the pellets. When I got all of the pikmin working, I came down and saw Olimar trying to carry the engine by himself. I could swear that he got the engine a few inches closer, but he still looked hilarious trying to lift it.

"Are you done?" I asked and put my hands on my hips.

"Not until," he struggled with the weight. "My engine is in my ship!"

I sighed and shook my head. I walked to the onion and whistled (I have no idea how I got the whistle, by the way, I suck at whistling in real life) the pikmin to me. I walked back to the engine and let the pikmin carry the engine. Olimar let go and the engine dropped to the ground.

A number appeared over the engine's head. The number 20. "See," I said. "It takes exactly twenty pikmin to carry the onion. You probably have the strength of one and a half. Even then, the pikmin would be able to carry the engine a lot faster than you can, which will be vital in later days. Anyway, when those pikmin flower, we'll get the engine and fly off into space."

"But we'll never be able to fly to Hocotate. The rocket doesn't have nearly enough ship parts. There are thirty missing parts." Captain Olimar said. "By the way, the Dolphin can't carry two people comfortably."

"I'll sleep on the floor, or something." I offered. "Your ship."

"Very well, but don't complain to me if you get uncomfortable." Olimar said.

"I won't." I said.

We waited for ten more minutes until the final pikmin flowered. After that, I brought the engine to the engine, "pressed x" (I have no idea what to call it. I guess I'll call it separating later) and let the pikmin carry the engine. While they carried it to the ship and Olimar and I followed, I thought to myself, _this is the perfect day in the speed run. Maybe I'll be able to get all of the parts in eight days._

This proved futile, as it took me a lot longer than eight days. How long, you may ask, I will not tell you. This is a very long story, however, even though I might shorten a few parts.

Once the ship sucked up the engine and flipped over (to my surprise), Captain Olimar actually danced. I laughed so hard at that. He laughed as well, finally seeing hope in his situation and making the best of it, I'd imagine. Anyway, he finally smiled at me, instead of just glaring. I felt that we were finally going to earn each other's trust one way or another, but it would take a lot of time.

We both got into the ship and as soon as we lifted off the ground and the onion followed, the sky turned into night. Both of us looked out of the window confused, but I shook it off and decided to get something to eat. We could remove our suits in here, so I got to eat these famous pikpik carrots. They were actually very good. They didn't taste like actual carrots; they were sweeter and had more of a sour aftertaste. They almost tasted like candy. The noodles were great as well. Unfortunately, we could only eat twice a day. I didn't want to go through the entire day without eating, so I hoped that the day would actually be the fifteen minutes it is in real life.

I'll find out all of this tomorrow, I hope.


	3. Chapter 2: The Second Ship Part

Chapter 2: The Second Ship Part

After orbiting the planet all night, while sleeping, and having another delicious meal of carrots and noodles, we traveled from the Impact Site to the Forest of Hope (he named them, of course. I couldn't argue with the correct names) in search of more ship parts. I, of course, knew that the forest had a lot of ship parts, but it was funny to keep worried. I knew exactly what to do. All I could hope was that he would listen to me.

We landed, feeling a sharp jolt as the ship touched the ground. We got out of the ship and saw the red onion (I had to stop him from naming it a potato) had followed us to the surface.

"Perfect," I said. "Olimar, try to not be a nuisance, okay?"

"Excuse me?" He glared at me. I was used to it by now, so I ignored him and walked over to the onion. I stood under the red light, but had no idea how to send pikmin out. That is, until I saw a hologram of a screen that looked exactly like how it looks in the game. I pushed my finger downward from one number to the next and all 25 pikmin came out of the onion. I turned around and grinned at Olimar, who was looking around the arena with a confused look.

"How do we get out?" He asked. "Why did you tell me to land here? There's no way out!"

"We have to destroy those two walls," I said, pointing at the two walls. "One of them we can't destroy until we acquire... until we... well..." I paused, not wanting to tell him about the yellow pikmin until we actually got them. "We'll destroy that wall sooner or later. For now, we have to destroy that white wall with holes in it."

"Impossible. It's much too large." Olimar said. I ignored him and directed the pikmin to the wall. They immediately began hitting the wall. One joker, no matter how hard I tried, never hit the wall. I sighed and saw the two pellet posies. I grabbed it by the neck (as I had seen Olimar throw them in the games) and threw it at a posey. It flew through the air and landed at my feet.

"What the heck?" I said. I grabbed it and threw it again. It didn't even go high in the air this time. It just dropped on the ground. "Impossible. I have a great arm."

"Need help?" Olimar asked. I sighed and he took control of the pikmin. He threw it at the posey. It soared through the air and landed on the top. I looked at my arms and frowned. "That wasn't hard." The pikmin cut down the posey due to its weight and began carrying the yellow pellet. It got to the onion and I called it. I threw it at the red pellet, but it landed at my feet again. I sighed and directed it to the posey, where it destroyed it in five hits. (Used the C stick if you're confused)

While it carried it to the onion, Olimar plucked the earlier sprout. We heard a large crash and turned around to find that the wall had reduced to two-thirds its original size. I gave a sly smile to Olimar and he shook his head. I plucked the remaining sprouts, we directed them to the wall, and waited until it was destroyed. When it was gone, we saw a dwarf bulborb sniffing the ground a long ways from us. I grabbed three pikmin and ran to the wall behind the large bulborb, being careful not to waken it. I directed the pikmin to the wall and ran back to Olimar. I winked at him and told him to throw pikmin onto the bulborb's back.

"With luck," I had said. "they'll crush it in one blow. If they don't, then just swarm him."

"Alright. If any pikmin die, I blame you." said Olimar.

"Well that's nice. If pikmin under your control die, you blame someone else. Thanks." I said sarcastically.

I ran to some of the pellet posies and began hitting them to make them drop. While I was doing that, I watched Olimar take on the bulborb. He threw three pikmin at the bulborb, but they all missed. One landed right in front of the dwarf, but it was so surprised it allowed the pikmin to run out of reach. Olimar directed the remaining pikmin to the bulborb and they all swarmed it. Their numbers were so large that the bulborb was soon defeated. I nodded and flashed Olimar a thumbs up, which he never saw. He ran to the other bulborb and used the same strategy. This time, however, a pikmin landed directly on the bulborb and crushed it flat, killing it. I walked over to Olimar and patted him on the back.

"Great job. Now let's gather up these pellets and make more pikmin." I said.

He nodded and let me take half of the pikmin. I told him to get the 5-pellet on the ledge first while I got the pikmin to get the dead dwarf bulborbs and the remaining pellets. After gathering all of the pellets and bulborbs, and being left with exactly zero pikmin, we went back to our base. I told Olimar to pluck some of the pikmin while I grabbed 5 of them and walked over to the grass sticking up near the rocket. They began plucking the grass and three drops of yellow nectar sprang out from the grass. I called the pikmin back and walked to Olimar, who had finished plucking the remaining pikmin, and told him to swarm the pikmin to the nectar.

"Why?" He asked.

"Don't question me." I said. "It gets very annoying."

He shrugged and did what I told him. All but three of the leaved pikmin stopped moving and sucked up the nectar. After standing there surprised, they ducked their heads down, flipped it up, ducked their heads down again, and flowers formed from their leaves immediately.

"Wow!" Olimar said. "Could that nectar have the same nutrients that the ground has? Is that why the pikmin bloomed so quickly?"

"It's pretty amazing," I said. His excitement for this world was amazing. Even though he was trapped on an unknown planet, set to die within 30 days, and away from family and friends, he still could find wonders in the world. Although, admittedly, I wasn't in a much better position, except that I wouldn't die in 30 days from lack of oxygen. I'd probably die from bulborbs or being crushed by the rock-larvae.

"We have a total of 56 pikmin," He said, counting them up. "What do we do next?"

"We get your battery." I said, grinning.

He looked confused, but I took control of all of the pikmin and walked out of the base. Olimar followed me, still looking confused. I pointed towards the Eternal Fuel Dynamo; the second ship part. Olimar gasped and gave a large grin, seeing a second ship part so close by. I ran towards the two dwarf bulborbs guarding it, swarmed them, and killed them fairly quickly.

"Alright," I said. "It takes 40 pikmin to carry it-" I had thrown a single pikmin to see the number appear above the ship part. "and there are two dead dwarf bulborbs that take 3 pikmin each to carry and the 10-pellet over there. We'll have a use for all of our pikmin."

We worked together to get exactly the amount of pikmin to carry each object. Olimar followed the pikmin into the base while I watched over the three pikmin that had already torn down a third of the wall. Olimar soon came with 74 pikmin.

"All right, hurry up Olimar!" I said, unknowingly stepping on the bulborb's paw. "We need to break down this wall as quickly as possible!"

"Look out!" Olimar shouted, pointing behind me.

I turned around and saw the bulborb rising up to its full height. It towered over me. I nearly fainted right then, but I knew that it would mean death. My first thought was to get out, but I didn't want to sacrafice those three poor pikmin there. I dove aside and the bulborb chomped down, tripping over as it missed me (just like it did in the games.) I took the time to whistle over the three pikmin and get them close to me. I took off, keeping as close to the wall as I could, and hid behind the can. I was afraid to move, but I heard Olimar calling my name. I took a few steps out and felt the ground move from beneath me. I freaked out when the flint beetle (as I always did every single time the beetle appeared in the game) came out of the ground and skittered away. I clutched my heart and my mouth at the same time, for I knew I let out a girly shriek and the bulborb heard. I looked at my three pikmin, who were giving me blank, obedient looks, and ran out from the can.

I saw the bulborb fighting Olimar, who was winning. A few pikmin were on the bulborb's back and several were hitting its feet. I could actually see the circle above the bulborb's head, which was in the yellow. Olimar had several pikmin left, but he was throwing them much too slowly. Several pikmin were getting eaten. So much for the no-pikmin run. Anyway, I whistled the pikmin at the bulborb's feet and ran to Olimar as the bulborb tripped over trying to snatch at them. I gave Olimar all but one of my pikmin and tried to distract the bulborb. It worked and the bulborb had its back to Olimar. Olimar threw as many pikmin as he could as fast as he could. The bulborb couldn't turn around in time. It tried shaking them off, but more came. All of its health was depleted and it died.

"Yes!" I yelled as I avoided the falling bulborb. "We did it!"

"We lost a lot of pikmin, though." Olimar said. "We only have sixty pikmin left."

"We lost 14 pikmin, which isn't bad for our first time." I said. "Let's just tackle that wall."

Olimar nodded and we directed all sixty pikmin to the wall. I told Olimar to ignore the bulborb for now, because I knew that we'd be needing it for something else quickly.

I heard a ding in my head and looked into the sky. The sun was directly overhead. It had only been a half hour, and it was already midday. At least we had more time to get the ship parts, but the levels were a lot larger than in the actual games.

The wall broke down the remaining two times and we got a clear view of the next clearing. In the corner, behind the dwarf bulborb and red bulborb, was the yellow onion.

"That," I said pointing at it. "Is what we'll use to tear down that wall."


	4. Chapter 3: The Yellow Pikmin

Chapter 3: The Yellow Pikmin

As soon as that wall crashed down as soon as noon began, I had the sudden revelation that this was the fastest I had ever gotten the wall down as well as getting the first treasure. Even in my fastest time, I had only gotten the wall down just before three fourths of the day was over. I guess having two people helped. At this rate, Olimar would be in no danger. But what about me? Over the course of the day I had thoughts of living with Olimar and his family, but this was a video game! I had no idea if the people who created the game even knew what Hocotate's cities looked like. As far as I knew, as soon as the rocket lifted off the surface it would disappear and I'd fall into a glitch in the game or something.

I decided, at the moment, to ignore it and focus on beating the game. Olimar looked confused as soon as he saw the yellow onion. He looked at me and asked, "There are more types of pikmin?"

"I'm not going to spoil it for you." I winked slyly at him. "Give me the pikmin and avoid the bulborbs. Touch the yellow onion and start plucking pikmin. I'll handle the bulborbs."

"Alright" He said, not one hundred percent sure about it. He walked past the bulborbs while I threw pikmin onto the dwarf...

...or, should I say, threw them onto my feet. That was, strangely, the only pain I've felt so far, besides pinching myself; having my feet crushed by light pikmin. I still couldn't throw far at all. I hoped this wouldn't affect our strategy. I hoped that this would wear off. Heck, I also hoped that I'd wake up from this dream soon. I wanted to help Olimar, don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but this experience was too weird.

...I realized that I needed to stop thinking so much and actually focus on helping Olimar. If I thought too much, I'd get killed.

I decided to stop uselessly throwing pikmin and swarmed the little guy. He died within a few seconds, and by then I saw the yellow onion up and running. Olimar had already gotten five pikmin and was looking at me while pointing at the sleeping bulborb. At that moment, I felt so useless. I had no idea what to do. I figured that if too many pikmin died, I'd just reset the day (Oh boy) so I swarmed the large bulborb as well.

Big mistake...

The bulborb woke up, but with all of the pikmin I managed to cut its HP down to one fourth before it got to full height and that glitch, you know, the one that causes the bulborb to become completely invincible if it's about to bite, happened. The pikmin attacked its feet, but it was invincible as it snatched down three red pikmin. They cut its HP in half of what it used to be before it snatched FIVE pikmin at once! I didn't know what to do. Olimar didn't either. We were frozen in fear and confusion as the bulborb snatched up seven more pikmin before it was killed. I groaned and slapped my head three times, each time saying, "Stupid!" to myself.

"Well that was smart," Olimar said. He was the one smiling slyly that time. The pikmin's losses must not have affected him much. He must not realize that the only way he could possibly survive was to keep at least 100 pikmin alive. Right now we were at 50 pikmin after losing 29. We weren't doing so well.

"Shut up," I said, not playfully if you catch my drift. "I'll gather up one of these bulborbs with the reds. I'll follow them. You keep getting the yellow pikmin's numbers up, okay? There's plenty for them to gather."

He sighed and nodded. I swarmed the bulborb outside the arena, but walked back inside to say, "Be careful with the bomb rocks" while pointing at the three bomb rocks near the stone wall. I winked at him as he looked confused and followed the red pikmin. I followed them to the red onion and plucked the twelve pikmin that came out. I looked at the ledge that held the 5-pellet and remembered something.

"Dude, I'm telling you that it won't work." I had said. You were the one telling me to throw the pikmin onto that ledge to get the Shock Absorber (one of the few names I remember) and defeating the bulborb. You said it would get the day done faster. You said that you had gotten it done in 12 days and this was the first step. You didn't tell me everything, but this part I remembered.

I never tried it myself in any of my runs, but you continued saying, "Just trust me. It will work. How else could I get 12 days?"

I remember that day. That was the day I kicked you out of my house. That day was a few weeks ago. Thankfully you realized I wasn't serious. Otherwise I wouldn't be telling you about this at all.

I'm getting off track. Anyway, I decided to trust you and threw all 57 of my pikmin onto the ledge. Yes, onto the ledge. I guess I improved at least a little bit, because they all landed on the ledge. It took a few minutes longer than I wanted it because they kept falling off because I couldn't get them up the ledge far enough. They all landed on the edge and there were so many of them that they pushed each other off.

Anyway, you should know what I'm talking about. The point is: I got all of them on the ledge. I climbed up the root to the next ledge, kept to the wall and avoided the annoying bulborb, whistled all of the pikmin, kept to the wall again to get behind the bulborb, walked to the popping seeds and managed to get two nectars out. I let the pikmin become flowers to defeat the bulborb faster. Then, I swarmed it.

The bulborb woke up, but luck was on my side because it tripped over itself trying to snatch at pikmin. It somehow missed and my pikmin were able to kill it. I jumped for joy and looked at the ship part. Olimar would be so proud.

I looked at the yellow onion and saw several seeds were popping out of it. I was confused, but soon saw the radar being carried by pikmin. Olimar came into view (even though he was very small from this distance) and whistled the pikmin under the onion to go through the tunnel where all of the sheargrubs are. I couldn't believe it. He actually figured out how bomb rocks worked all by himself.

I stared at Olimar working for a few minutes before a few of my pikmin touched me on my thigh. I looked down and they pointed at the bulborb. I was speechless. This small gesture made me realize that pikmin had feelings. I know, what I said sounded cruel, but they could be thrown to their deaths and never stopped Olimar or Louie or the President from doing it. I know, I've done it several times before. More cruel thinking, I know.

I nodded at the pikmin and swarmed the bulborb and the treasure, leaving me with no pikmin left. I walked off the ledge, allowing them to carry it on their own, passed the radar and walked to Olimar.

"All right," I said. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" He asked innocently, though he smiled knowingly. I raised my eyebrow and he sighed. "Okay, while you were gone, I gathered up everything in the little bowl-thing and got 35 pikmin exactly. I looked at the bomb rocks, did you say they were, that you pointed at and threw a pikmin at them. It picked it up and walked over to me. I threw two more pikmin and got them back. I wondered why they were at the wall and threw the yellow pikmin, which, if you didn't know, flies much higher than the red pikmin, at the wall. It set the bomb rock down and the rock began fizzing. It suddenly blew up and the wall dropped down. I realized how powerful these must be and threw the other two pikmin at the wall. They set their bomb rocks down and the wall collapsed as they blew up.

"I walked into the next level and saw my Whimsical Radar on the ledge. I was so close to another ship part! I threw twenty of the pikmin onto the ledge and they carried the radar to the ground. They suddenly walked towards the two small creatures that were sniffing the ground; I think I'll call them dwarf bulborbs because they look like my pet, Bulby, and I whistled them back. One of them bit at a pikmin, but missed, and began chasing him. I swarmed that dwarf bulborb and they managed to kill it, but the other one grew interested. I threw a lot of pikmin onto the other bulborb and managed to crush it, but some new creatures burrowed up from the ground.

"They were pink and purple bugs that didn't have any legs or arms, but they scuttled on the ground towards my pikmin. A purple bug snatched one of my pikmin in its jaws and I swarmed it. So many pikmin attacked it, but it wouldn't die. I thought that they were invincible! Finally it ate my yellow pikmin and the pikmin killed it. I thought it was very odd. I decided to take no chances and let my pikmin take the dead bodies. However, I was left with seven pikmin so I decided to look around. Immediately after I passed where the dead bodies were, several of those creatures popped out of the ground. I whistled my pikmin back in fear and ran out of the area.

"I plucked out the pikmin that were created from the bodies and saw you on the ledge staring at me. I decided to go back into the area and fight them. I saw them rise from the ground and swarmed them, one by one, and somehow, they weren't invincible, so they died fairly easy. I made sure to get all of them out and walked out to find you here."

He paused and walked over to the onion. A sheargrub body was sucked into the onion, but no pikmin came out. "I think it's broken." He said.

I suddenly remembered that only one hundred pikmin could be on the field at one time. I told him this and he looked confused. "Why?" He asked. I shrugged. "Possibly because having more than 100 would make the game too easy."

"Game?" He asked.

I realized my slip of tongue. I shook my head and said, "Never mind." I then told him my story (leaving out the reference to you, of course) about how I got the third ship part. I felt proud that we were now beating my own record. This might end faster than I had thought.

"It's getting dark," He said after I finished. "Thank you for getting another ship part for me. Once they get them to the ship, all we'll need is one more ship part to go to the next level."

I remembered one thing. "We have time. Get three yellow pikmin to those bomb rocks and follow me to the base ASAP."

"What does ASAP mean?" He asks.

"You're kidding." I said. "Just hurry up."

We actually ran to the base, making sure to get every single pikmin along the way, and I told him what to do. He threw all three pikmin carrying the bomb rocks at the second wall, they let them go, and the wall was destroyed. After we destroyed the wall and Olimar got a good look of the level (without any pikmin) we left the planet.

Two days down, I thought as we left the planet and I saw the yellow and red onions following us, and we have four ship parts. We're doing well, so far, and I think Olimar's beginning to trust me. This game's getting interesting. I like playing it.

End of Day 2:

Red - 57  
Yellow - 56  
Ship Parts: 4/30


	5. Chapter 4: Unexpected Surprises

Chapter 4: Unexpected Surprises

I'll skip what happened overnight because of how boring it is, but to summarize what happened yesterday: We got three ship parts. As Olimar said, we only needed one more part to go to the Forest Naval (currently unnamed, of course) but I thought that we could get both the Extraordinary Bolt and Nova Blaster today. That would mean that, if we were fast enough, we only had to get three of the parts left. I was planning it all out that night.

As we landed, I discussed my plan with Olimar, knowing that the day wouldn't start until we left the ship. He agreed for the most part, but I knew that he had no choice because he barely knew anything about the planet. I did. I knew what to do. I had done it many times before.

Anyway, we got out of the ship and immediately began working on it. I got 50 of the yellow pikmin while Olimar got 50 of the reds. He ran towards the bulborbs while I ran out the other way to collect bomb rocks. I got to the first can and got 8 bomb rocks, and then ran to the second can and got 8 more. I separated the yellows from the bomb-rock carriers and lead three of them to the wall. They set them down and we ran away from the wall as it blew up. I watched it crumble three times and whistled all of the other pikmin. I walked through the long sheargrub-free path and reached the darker wall. I knew it took twelve bomb rocks to destroy this sucker, so I took four and placed them at the wall. They let go and we ran away. They blew up the wall, which went down a third of the way. I took five more (I know, I was daring) and placed them at the wall. Wash, rinse, repeat; the wall blew up and the path was clear.

I whistled all of the pikmin back and carefully stepped through the plants that covered the connecting path. I saw Olimar giving me a thumbs up (I had to teach him what it meant because he had no idea) and I saw the dead bulborbs. I nodded and gave him a thumbs up as well. I went back to the bolt and swarmed it, letting all but six of the yellows carry it. Four of them held bomb rocks, which I knew could be used for later.

This whole thing took five minutes, which meant that a sixth of the day was gone. I knew that we were going to make it, but I couldn't risk messing up. I know this is foreshadowing, but I still had four bomb rocks that could blow up if I screwed up.

Olimar saw the Extraordinary Bolt passing by and asked, "How did you find that, anyway?"

"I saw it when we landed," I said, making something up.

He nodded and focused on the pikmin while I followed the yellow pikmin to the rocket. I whistled them just before they reached it and went back to Olimar. I wanted him to see the rocket change, like it does in the games. I shouldn't even be here, so I figured I wouldn't mess things up by doing things without Olimar's knowledge.

I sent around twenty yellows to hit the wall, called Olimar and told him to get the 20-pellet off of the tree trunk. I got the four bomb rock pikmin and let him throw the remaining yellows onto the ledge. They gathered around the 20-pellet and carried it off the ledge, unknowingly leading themselves to a long fall. They continued holding the pellet even as they landed, but the fall didn't seem to shake them at all. They really were good workers.

By this time, the red pikmin had finally broken down the wall, so we waited until the yellow pikmin had gotten the pellet to the onion. I whistled them all back and walked back to Olimar, who was waiting impatiently at the wall. I separated the pikmin and got all three bomb rock pikmin, letting him take the rest. He went ahead to face the bulborbs when I noticed a yellow pikmin was carrying the bomb rocks.

"Oh crud." I said to myself, although I said something a lot worse in actuality, but for your sake I'll keep it PG. "Olimar! Watch out!"

I hoped he wouldn't need to hear this warning, but he was already battling the dwarf and couldn't hear me. The good news was that the pikmin was in one of the very last rows. I ran towards the battle and reached him as he was facing the second dwarf. He crushed this one and I tried grabbing the bomb pikmin. Olimar turned directly around and grabbed a yellow pikmin, and I knew what happened next would be bad.

He threw as many yellow pikmin as he could at the sleeping bulborb. One of which was the bomb rock pikmin. The bulborb woke up and shook the pikmin off, but Olimar continued throwing them. I watched the pikmin back away from the bulborb and throw the bomb rock. Olimar never saw it coming.

The bomb rock exploded, causing the bulborb to lose half of its remaining health, leaving it with an eighth of its full health left. The down side was that the explosion caught all of the twenty or so pikmin that was on or near the bulborb. Those died. The greatest thing was, Olimar was only a few feet from the bulborb, so he was thrown back in the explosion as well as five or six more pikmin. He lost a bit of health. He was in a daze. The bulborb was alive and angry. I couldn't throw. Our pikmin were doomed.

I did the only thing I could: I ran right below the bulborb and let him eat one of my yellow bomb rock pikmin. The sucky thing was: He ate all three. The explosion killed him, but we lost a lot of pikmin and Olimar was unconscious. That had never happened before. In the games, he should have woken up only a few seconds after. That wasn't the case here. He was out cold. His pikmin turned pale, so I whistled them back. I let them swarm the Nova Blaster, bulborbs, and Olimar. It only took four to carry him. I walked back to the ship with them, making sure to let the pikmin carry the other dead bulborb as they went to replenish our lost pikmin, and let them go to their spots.

There was no way I could stop the pikmin from picking up both treasures, so I let them go at it. I saw the ship "increase its capabilities" and saw a few pieces of armor appear out of nowhere and attach themselves to the ship. Olimar was brought to the pikmin's onion and shot up to the body of the onion. It did that special easter egg that happens in the games, thank goodness, and fireworks shot out of the onion. Olimar dropped to the ground, but was still out cold.

The pikmin brought the bodies to the onions and I plucked the 36 pikmin that came out. I was alone with half the day to explore. Olimar was gone. I decided to try to take care of the snargrets. That was one of the few bosses that I could handle myself, as I only had to swarm when it got stuck.

I took 50 reds and 50 yellows (I was surprised that there were still 50 yellows left after the explosion) out of the arena, leaving Olimar unconscious and alone. I walked through the next two levels until I reached the can that had no bomb rocks. I saw the two sleeping bulborbs and dwarf bulborb and realized that I could make it without Olimar's help. I took a few steps into the level and was blown to the next wall. I saw my pikmin standing there, looking around confused and paling.

I got to my feet and ran to them when I saw what had blasted me: A large blast of air. I didn't see what was causing the air until my pikmin were blown across the entire forest. Some even landed near the cannon beetle (which I found out later.) That's how powerful that wind was. I only saw three pikmin even close to where I was. The rest were scattered around the level. I groaned, knowing that I screwed up. There was no way I could get the ship part now, but I had to figure out what had blasted me. I walked into the level again and slid in front of the stone wall, knowing that there was no way I could get blasted away without the creature being out of bounds.

I stood there for several seconds, waiting for something to happen. I took a few steps forward and ran back to the wall, banging my helmet on it in the process. I took a few more steps out than before and took two steps out and nothing happened. I had no idea what had done that, but it was gone for now. I walked out of the arena and saw the three pikmin attacking the ground where the yellow onion used to be.

"What is going on?" I asked, as I was familiar with the level and knew that there was nothing in the ground where they were attacking.

At this moment, if this was a dream, I guess this would be when my mind started wandering from the actual story, because what happened next had never happened in either of the games.

As soon as I reached the edge of the circle, a large hand- yes, a five-fingered hand- came out of the ground right underneath the pikmin. I freaked out and whistled the pikmin back as quickly as possible and high-tailed it out of there. I didn't even stop to whistle the five-or so pikmin I passed. I reached the bowl where the onions were, seeing a few pikmin had landed there, and tried catching my breath.

The day had gone off to a good start, but I was alone and pretty much pikminless. I had to find ninety pikmin before the last half of the day was over.

It was going to be a tough job.


	6. Chapter 5: Alone

Chapter 5: Alone

I swear, I stayed in a fetal position right next to the rocket and the unconscious Olimar for most of the remaining day. It was only when the sun turned into yellow when I was brought back into reality. There were ninety pikmin scattered around the level, helpless, about to be eaten. I had around three minutes to get them all. It was impossible, so I hoped that at least a few of them were close to the base. Olimar could have helped if I hadn't blown him up.

...anyway, I crept up to the edge of the base and saw around ten pikmin building the bridge, but I didn't want to make the hand appear again. I had no idea what that creature was, but it wasn't in the game, so I had no idea how it got here. If this was the actual game, then I assumed the developers must have taken it out for some reason. Maybe for difficulty reasons? I sure hoped not.

I took a few steps out of the base, stepping very gingerly and ready to sprint back to safety. I managed to make it to the bridge and whistled the eleven pikmin. They came back to me and I walked over to the pool of water nearby. I "pressed X" and left my pikmin to search for pikmin on the ledge.

I only saw three pikmin that were gathered where the ship part rested, so I called them and jumped down to the other side (where the Nova Blaster used to be). I decided to go around the rest of the area and call back the pikmin later. I found seven pikmin next to the small pool, and realized that not all of my pikmin would survive.

With this happy note in my head, I continued onward. I reached the "fork" where the yellow pellet used to be and looked on the ledge. There, out of reach of my whistle, were around six red pikmin, two of which were attacking the wall. I cursed my growing luck and moved through the leaves. I managed to find seven pikmin hidden in the small forest.

I reached the next tunnel and saw three pikmin gathered where the Extraordinary Bolt was. I whistled them up. I turned around and saw at least twenty pikmin in the tunnel. I whistled the first group up, but became more cautious as I came closer to where the hand was. I whistled the last seven up and walked back to the rocket (taking the long way, of course).

I only had forty pikmin and the day was ending. I could tell that the large "10" would be flashing in front of my head soon. After staring at Olimar for a bit, hoping he'd wake up, I walked out of the other side of the base and whistled the fourteen pikmin I had left earlier. I walked towards the hand, now, and whistled up six pikmin along the way. I finally reached the arena where I had seen the giant hand, but didn't step inside. I only looked around to see if any pikmin were inside, but none were.

Somehow, I had lost forty pikmin. Most had probably drowned, but at least seven were alive and out of reach from my whistle. If only I had that upgrade in the second game that allows the whistle's reach to be longer. Only now did I realize how important that upgrade actually was.

I walked back to the base, feeling guilt and sadness in my heart. I knew it was only a game, but I never realized what could happen if you became careless or stupid. My defense was: How was I supposed to know that a giant gust of wind and a large human-hand were in the game. I never saw them. The developers never... developed them. Olimar wasn't supposed to fall asleep for the entire day if he blew up- man that sounds bad...

I'm starting to wonder if this is the game I had played just last week. It seems the same, but at the same time it's entirely different. I'm not sure what this is anymore. Is it real? Is it a dream? Is it a game?

All of these things made me so confused while I tried waking Olimar up. My mind was so twisted I couldn't focus on Olimar, my thoughts, and the approaching nocturnal bulborbs. One thing was certain: We had to leave the planet. In order to do that, we had to drive the rocket. In order to do _that_, I had to wake the only person who knew how to drive the Dolphin up. Olimar was still asleep, but I managed to get a reaction out of him after slapping his helmet a few times.

He was groggy, but he was waking up. Just in time too, because the bulborbs of the night were reaching the Forest of Hope. Where they came from, I don't know and I don't want to know. I wouldn't want to travel there for a ship part. Anyway, Olimar saw it was night and he came to his senses after a few seconds. I pulled him into the rocket while our pikmin ran to the onion. He started up the rocket and we took off into orbit.

I looked down at the surface and saw at least twenty red pikmin running towards the onion, trying to outrace the predators. I felt extremely bad when the onion stayed behind to let them on, something that never happens in the games. The onion took off after the last one got on, so I felt relieved, but it didn't last long because I saw three other red pikmin running towards the onion from the other direction. The onion didn't stop to pick them up. The last thing I saw before objects on the surface became too small was the sight of the bulborbs surrounding the poor pikmin. The seven-or-so bulborbs charged at once.

I looked away, sickened. Today changed my thinking of the world of Pikmin. There were too many options to choose from. I couldn't decide what this was. If I even thought about any of the thousands of options I would feel woozy. I looked at Olimar, who had no idea what I had been through, and felt tears come down my face. I couldn't wipe them away, so I let them fall. I didn't even know why I was getting so emotional. I knew this didn't exist, but I couldn't shake a certain feeling that I couldn't figure out. It was something I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried.

I ignored this feeling for the moment, only staring blankly at the sky. I never noticed how beautiful it actually was. I guess I only noticed it now because I was in a rocket several thousand miles above the ground (or it seemed, I could have been five feet above the ground for all I knew). It was hypnotizing. I didn't notice Olimar poking my shoulder to get my attention until we were beginning our orbit around the planet.

"What happened while I was unconscious," he asked. "And, while we're talking about it, why was I unconscious in the first place?"

I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to say that I screwed up. I didn't want to lie and say that it wasn't either. I took a deep breath and responded:

"I messed up. My mistake almost killed you. We lost around forty pikmin today, again: My fault entirely. While you were unconscious, I met a few creatures that completely, let's face it, ducked up the day."

"Ducked up?" He asked, confused. "What happened specifically?"

I ignored his first question for obvious reasons, but I explained as carefully as I could how much I screwed up. He understood, for the most part, but I couldn't use "teen slang" or else he'd ask what I was talking about, which was very annoying.

After my explanation, I was so freaking tired. I fell asleep as soon as I finished. Olimar understood. Tomorrow he told me how many red and yellow pikmin we had left, when we visited the next level.

He called it, "The Forest Naval."

--

End of Day 3

Red: 44

Yellow: 43

Ship Parts: 6/10


	7. Chapter 6: Time for the Blues

Chapter 6: Time for the Blues

I woke up a few minutes before we landed on the planet, to start our journey in the newest area. I hoped I knew what to do, but with what I saw yesterday, I didn't know what to expect. All I had to do was hope that this level would be similar to the game, and then act out the plan I had formed the day before. I honestly had no idea what to expect.

Well, when I woke up I saw Captain Olimar sitting at the small table and quietly eating Hocotation Space Noodles. Remembering what he had said in the journal in Pikmin, I wondered how it tasted cold. I knew there was a ship part that allowed him to cook the space noodles, and I knew at the moment he was missing it. He looked depressed. I could only imagine how it would be to be stranded from home.

Of course, at the time, I still assumed it was only a game. A game on "hard" mode, but still a game. All I did to comfort him, using the word lightly, was pat him on the shoulder. I didn't say a word, and grabbed a packet of space noodles. I was right: They were cold. They were also fairly good, but I was sure that they'd taste even better cooked. I made a mental note to go to the Impact Site as soon as possible.

After we finished, Olimar landed the ship in the Forest Naval, while the onions landed in the few grass patches that were left. I remembered that, in the game, the floor had whole grass. Now, only a bit of grass was left. I wondered what that meant.

Olimar got out of the ship and stretched, and then turned around while I stumbled out of the ship and landed on my arse. I rubbed it and got to my feet. I turned to Olimar and said, "All you have to do is trust me. For now, we'll split up." I paused and looked around for a wall. I saw three of them; two could only be destroyed by bomb rocks, and the last one was my target. I pointed at the large pile of sticks leading to the gear on top of the large tree stump. "You get exactly forty red pikmin and lead them to those sticks. When they reach the ship part up there, kill the green bugs, but leave the bodies alone. While they carry the ship part to the ship, go to the bridge behind that wall and leave your pikmin to building it."

"What will you do?" He asked.

"I will get forty yellow pikmin and destroy that wall, and then get the blue pikmin." I answered, pointing down to where I assumed the blue onion was.

"Blue pikmin?" Olimar tilted his head in confusion. "There is another pikmin type?"

"Yes, there is." I slyly winked. "I'll show you what they can do when you finish your job. Now hurry up."

We walked to our assigned onions and got out forty pikmin of each. After I jumped down the ledge to the white wall, I couldn't see what Olimar was doing, so I could only assume that he was doing what I said. After all forty pikmin followed me, I "c-sticked" them to the wall, making sure that all of them were actually attacking the wall, and not just hidden behind pikmin waiting to surprise me while in the water and drown because of it, I left them to search for the blue pikmin's onion.

I jumped down to the floor below, walked up the path, took the path leading downwards at the fork, and jumped down into the water. There, a few inches from me, was the blue onion. Blue pikmin had always been my favorite type of pikmin, so I couldn't wait to control them. I walked up to the onion and poked it. The onion suddenly lit up and I backed up into the wall. It popped out of the ground and a small blue seed popped out of the flower on the top. I waited until the sprout's leaf grew until I could pluck it out. I grabbed it with both hands and pulled. The sprout came out fairly easy, but I used so much strength that I fell onto my arse again.

The blue pikmin opened its mouth and took a deep breath when I turned around to look at it. It looked at me and tilted its head. It looked so cute!

...anyway... please ignore that last remark. I grabbed the pikmin and, forgetting how weak I was, threw the pikmin at one of the blue pellets. It landed a few inches from me, and that was when I remembered I couldn't throw. I grabbed it again, walked up to the poser and, frustrated, punched the pellet with the pikmin in my hand. The pikmin broke through the stem and landed face-first on the ground. It looked confused at me and picked up the pellet. It walked over to the onion, let the onion suck the pellet up, and I whistled it back to me. I grabbed it and threw it at the second pellet, and repeated for the third pellet.

By this time, I saw the red pikmin carrying the gear above me, so I turned to where the shearwigs were. This was another thing that surprised me: There weren't three shearwigs. There were 10. There were literally ten shearwigs against Olimar's seven pikmin. He was screwed unless I did something.

I ran to my newborn blue pikmin, whistled them, and ran towards Olimar, hoping to be a big hero. Instead, when I got there, I saw that he had killed all ten and hadn't lost a single pikmin.

"When you sent me to kill these green bugs, were you trying to kill me?" He asked, skeptical.

"There were only supposed to be three!" I wheezed. "I don't understand how there could be so many!"

"Well, apparently there were more. Now please gather up these bodies before they attract some larger beast." Olimar said. He called his red pikmin and followed the gear away.

"Actually," I slyly said to myself. "That's exactly what I'm hoping for."

You've played Pikmin before, so I don't have to explain why I wanted a larger beast to come out. My strategy for each run through of Pikmin was to grab the gear, get blue pikmin, and then wait for the breadbug to come close. Then I'd bring it to blue onion, have it lost most of its HP (and get a few blue pikmin out of it) and then let it crawl out of the water before killing it. I'd let the red pikmin take the ship part and the blue pikmin take the dead body. I hoped to do the same now.

I spent a couple of minutes gathering up nine of the shearwigs and the five-pellet. After all of that, I believe I had 48 pikmin, although only twenty were out of the onion. I made a mental note to remember to put away the yellow pikmin as soon as I was finished with this.

I walked over to the final shearwig and waited for the breadbug to waddle in. I waited until Olimar snuck up on me and scared the heck outta me. After he finished laughing, I decided that there was something wrong with the computer's AI (or whatever; I couldn't think of another solution) and told Olimar to get the yellow pikmin into the onion. When he left, I threw a pikmin onto the last sheargrub and walked through the pools of water to the Ionium Jet. The pikmin swarmed the ship part and I followed them up to the rocket.

By this time, in the actual games, I would've gotten the space floater as well as the two ship parts I'd already gotten. If you're wondering, a third of the day had been wasted once the Jet was taken into the rocket. By now, I realized that this wasn't the complete game. I just didn't know how much had actually changed.

I found Olimar putting away the last yellow pikmin and called him over. "Is that my Ionium Jet? How did you find it?" He asked, staring at the ship part.

I folded my arms, glanced at him, and asked, "Do you really have to ask that every time we get another ship part? Honestly?"

He only shrugged and we watched as the ship sucked the Jet up. By this time, the red pikmin had finished building the bridge, so I told Olimar to find them and build the second bridge. As I predicted, he had no idea what I was talking about, so I told him to trust me. Apparently he was beginning to trust me, as he didn't push the subject and left. I whistled the blue pikmin to me and dropped down to the blue onion, where I let twenty more pikmin out. I walked up the path and met up with Olimar, who was supervising the red pikmin. He looked sideways at me and nodded. I swarmed the bridge, which told all of the blue pikmin to begin building.

Once the bridge was completed, we both got our first view of a fiery blowhog close up. I whistled all eighty of the pikmin as soon as they finished building. I managed to whistle them just in time, because that fiery blowhog that, I'm sure you know, waddles beside the bridge once it's built was right in front of it, facing the pikmin, and sucking up air. As soon as the last blue pikmin heard the whistle and began running towards me, the blowhog released the flames from its snout. The bridge, surprisingly, did not catch fire and burn and the blowhog turned around as soon as it spat out the flames, leaving Olimar and me time to plan.

"What was that?" He asked. "I could feel the heat from up here. Those are some hot fumes."

"I'll let you name them, as long as they aren't stupid." I said. "All you have to do is throw red pikmin on them and they'll eventually die. Just make sure they don't face the water, or the pikmin will drown."

"And what will you do?" Olimar asked as he called the forty red pikmin.

I grinned at him and said, "I'ma huntin' me some shrooms."


	8. Chapter 7: Surprises, Yay!

Chapter Seven: Surprises... Yay...

I looked at my forty-five blue pikmin, deeply inhaled and exhaled the same amount of "air" out. I looked at Olimar again and gave a grin, one that he did not return. He nodded and ran down the bridge. The blowhog waddled towards him and spewed flames. Olimar ran to the left and avoided the flames, and then allowed his pikmin to swarm the creature.

I took this opportunity to run down the bridge and across the field which, I noticed, was filled with many blowhogs (more than in the game, I was sure). I stopped right under the yet-to-be-built bridge which, I knew, was where the spring was located. I made a mental note to tackle that later.

I remembered that, in the games, there was grass that could be plucked for nectar near here, and my pikmin were all leaves. I looked around a bit and found the grass sitting nearby. Five of my pikmin began plucking the grass while I waited, looking at my surroundings as they plucked. Three nectar droplets popped out of the grass and I swarmed them, hoping to get all forty turned into flowers. Miraculously, I succeeded.

I made a movement to go the long path, but I realized that there could be many more sheargrubs now than in the actual game. I didn't have enough pikmin to lose too many of them (as I knew I would if there were hoards of them) so I decided to go the short way. I'd also, hopefully, get to see the breadbug's hole and figure out why the breadbug hadn't shown up yet.

I walked past the grass and saw the hole a small distance away. As I walked towards it, I noticed that the hole was significantly larger than any of the holes that had been in the Pikmin series. I sighed as I realized that this was yet another thing that had been changed. When I was standing directly above the hole I, thankfully, discovered that the laws of physics didn't apply here and I could stand above the hole to nowhere. My pikmin were standing behind me, confused and unaware of anything, so I ignored the hole for the moment and jumped down the cliff. My pikmin followed and landed lightly on their feet, while I stumbled and fell onto my stomach.

I got up and observed the infamous "Mushroom Lair" where the Puffstool rested. I noticed the lone wollywog waddling around in place, searching for prey. I also noticed the many flaming geysers that were scattered across the land. I made a mental note to avoid them at afll costs, as none of my blue pikmin would be able to withstand the intense heat. I took a few steps towards the center of the lair, making my steps as quiet as possible to avoid detection.

My luck caused me to step on an inactive flame geyser. This might not seem like a big deal, but the ashes below me shifted under the weight of my shoe, causing me to trip backwards and made a loud _thump_ that echoed throughout the lair. The wollywog heard this and turned towards me. I groaned and got up as quickly as possible but I noticed that the wollywog was still staring at me. The AI must not be working, I thought. I shrugged and, keeping a set distance away, began walking around the wollywog. I met the wall before I completed the circle, so I had to keep as close to the wall as possible. Making a mental note to kill the wollywog soon, I jumped down the last cliff and walked into the puffstool's true arena.

What I saw was something I never dreamed could have happened.

Remember, in Pikmin, how there's only... you know... one puffstool? Get this; you're going to laugh. There wasn't one, or two, or three puffstools. There were five; all standing in a pentagon shape. All of them were walking in place, their antennae pointed upwards and seemingly staring at me. My jaw literally dropped. There was no way I was going to beat all five of them. I could barely beat the one in the games in half a day, and I only had a third of the day left with FIVE to beat.

One of them held the ship part. That much I knew, so I had to hope that the one I first chose had the ship part. I chose the one closest to the pikmin-accessible path leading to the rocket. I "c-sticked" my pikmin towards it and watched as my pikmin swarmed the thing. The puffstool began running away in a desperate attempt at saving its own hide. However, I didn't count on the other four running along with him, causing a chaotic panic, but that's exactly what they did. My pikmin were all over the place now, chasing all five of them. I had no control over them.

In an amazing coincidence (or possibly a planned event to make the "boss" seem easier), all five of them were running in such a pattern that they all met in the middle of the ring and made a silly sound as their rubber tops bounced off of each other, causing them all to flip over onto their mushroom tops. This also damaged them somewhat, much to my surprise, though it was only a small amount. There were two problems with what happened just then: First, I had no idea which one was the one I had originally chosen and second - another change from the game - the pikmin that had, unfortunately, been under them as they rolled were crushed and killed. This left me with forty blue pikmin and five comically helpless puffstools that would soon release their spores.

I whistled all of my pikmin back and focused on a random puffstool (mind you, I was too nervous to just look above them and see the pie graph showing their HP). To my surprise, my arm had strengthened enough so that the pikmin landed right above the mushroom top, though they could barely hold on and I only made it half the time. Nevertheless, I still managed to attach twenty pikmin to the mushroom, severely damaging it, before all five of the puffstools flipped over and raised the edges of their heads. I whistled my pikmin and ran to a corner of the ring as the purple smoke poured out of the puffstools. I made sure all of my pikmin were as close to me as they could be and made sure that every trace of the purple smoke was gone before I went back to attacking.

For my second attack, I decided to swarm all five of them. If the same thing happened as before, I would be ready. I walked into the middle of the puffstools and, on the inside, ran a full circle with my pikmin extending out and reaching each puffstool. In one revolution all of my pikmin were attacking a puffstool.

I watched the puffstools running around and felt a surge of enjoyment. This was the first time that I had noticed that doing this was extremely fun. It was much more fun than any of the boring Pikmin games. It was also the first, though not the last, time I thought of staying in the game forever. Just doing something like this with Olimar every day. If my arms "evolved" to the point where they could throw pikmin just as well as Olimar could, then I'd be set for life. I could play until I died or, if we couldn't return to the planet to repeat Pikmin, Pikmin 2! These thoughts ran through my mind as I watched the puffstools running for their lives.

To my surprise, I noticed one had receded to its mushroom top form. It had died. It didn't have a ship part. Apparently, the five puffstools were much weaker than the lone puffstool in the game. It also meant that there were only four puffstools remained. These four, yet again, collided in the middle of the ring. They flipped over (I made sure to keep all of the pikmin out of the way) and were helpless as I focused all of the pikmin on one of them. I only threw ten pikmin onto this one and turned to another one, throwing ten on this one as well. I could say with confidence that, by the third one, I was throwing better than ever. All ten of the pikmin managed to attach themselves to the puffstool's skin. Before I got to the fourth one, however, all four of the puffstools flipped over. Less than a second later (after a brief moment of shock that I realized could have been fatal) I had whistled all of my pikmin and running to the corner.

One poor pikmin... one clumsy, poor pikmin tripped just below one of the puffstools. It was covered in the smoke and I knew what its fate was. It would become a "Mushmin", a pikmin with a mushroom top on their head instead of a leaf; the one that attacked you instead of helped you. I could never save one after it had been spored. I knew it was dead, so I made its death short: I ran as fast as I could towards it and swarmed it. It had no chance against my army. It laid down to rest and, with regret, I watched its ghost fly into the sky and disappear.

I was in fury. That pikmin's death seemed to trigger something in me that made me furious. I don't know what happened even today. I just... snapped! I ran, at twice my normal speed, towards the puffstool that committed that horrible deed. I swarmed it and threw as many pikmin as I could onto its body. It didn't run three feet before it tripped and I threw as many pikmin as I could on it. It was dead before I threw twenty. Its head was the only thing still showing once it died. Like the first one, it didn't have a ship part.

I seemed to calm down after the puffstool's death, though, so I'm assuming it was just adrenaline. It was pretty freaky. Anyway, there were only three left and all three of them were running. As predicted, the three of them collided in the middle of the ring and flipped onto their heads. I threw twenty pikmin onto one of the puffstools and watched as it was killed, which happened fairly quickly. Yet again, no ship part.

I had plenty of time before the other two got back up, but I also had plenty of time before the day ended. I wasn't in a hurry. I walked towards the corner, not even bothering to keep my pikmin close, and watched the two puffstools flip back onto their feet and release their spores. I was calm for the remainder of the fight. I swarmed both of them with a fairly even amount of pikmin. More had attached to one when they both flipped (this time due to the amount of pikmin attached to them) so I focused on the other. Coincidently, they both died close to the same time, and I knew the fight was mine.

The one I had ignored was the one who held the ship part. I was fairly sure that that had been the one I had attacked at the beginning of the fight. I shrugged this off and swarmed three of the four puffstool heads, reminding myself to get the ship part later. I walked with my pikmin as they climbed up the path, keeping calm when one of their heads were lit ablaze from one of the flaming geysers and whistling them to safety. I managed to keep them alive until something hit me in the head. Well, it wasn't a "hit" more than "crushing me into the dirt so hard that only my head showed". This was when I realized that I had forgotten to kill the wollywog. I pulled myself out of the dirt and whistled my pikmin back to me.

The wollywog jumped back into the air and hovered a bit above me, allowing me to dive aside. When it landed, I swarmed it hoping to make this a short fight. To my amazement, it was. The wollywog was weighed down with so much pikmin; it couldn't jump back to its full height. It struggled, jumping every second and croaking with pain and frustration with each attempted hop, but each of its attempts lead to defeat. It was killed before its fourth hop. None of my pikmin had died as well, and I thought I was in the clear. There was still a fifth of the day left, meaning that I could get all of my spoils to the onions and produce more blue pikmin.

My stupidity got to the best of me: I forgot the sheargrubs.

Those tiny little... buggers... popped out of the ground right in front of me (after I had assigned pikmin to carcasses) and scared the life outta me. I jumped back and knocked over three of my pikmin in a would-be comedic fashion. The purple sheargrub scuttled across the ground towards my pikmin. It wasn't just one of them, though, it was ten. The ten of them dug their ways out of the ground and swarmed my poor pikmin; the ones that were carrying the wollywog body. I whistled the pikmin carrying the puffstool heads and began swarming the sheargrubs and shearwigs. The former were killed quickly, without any pikmin deaths, but the latter flew into the air before they could die. I threw my pikmin like mad, realizing too late that, despite my improved strength, I couldn't throw my pikmin high enough.

To my surprise, Olimar came running in out of nowhere. Without missing a beat, nor a pikmin, he shot down all five of the sheargrubs. I was impressed. He still had eight red pikmin left, but we silently agreed that we would explain each other's stories when we're in the rocket. He and I combined our pikmin and managed to make every pikmin carry every body. From then, it was a boring walk to the rocket.

The countdown began as soon as we reached the curved path leading to the landing site. I could hear the beeps echoing through my helmet and see the numbers blinking in front of my eyes. Every time I saw the number count down I grew anxious, whispering "Hurry up, pikmin, hurry up!" Olimar and I began to pluck pikmin (I took blue; he took red) as the bodies continued to pile up, producing more pikmin for us to pluck. As soon as the pikmin count reached 100 which, surprisingly, took a while (I assumed Olimar had put away his red pikmin) the pikmin stopped coming. The countdown reached two and Olimar and I still had a lot of pikmin to pluck; both red and blue. I had two ship parts that I still had to get and didn't want to fight through enemies to get them. I looked at Olimar.

"We're coming back here tomorrow." I said with finality. Olimar nodded his head in agreement as the countdown turned zero, we climbed into the rocket, and soared into the sky with all three of the onions following.

End of Day 4

Ship parts: 8/30  
Red: 78  
Blue: 137  
Yellow: 44


	9. Chapter 8: Return to the Forest Navel

Chapter Eight: Return to the Forest Navel

That night, Olimar explained what he had done while I was fighting the puffstools:

"Well, Jason, when you left for the puffstools I began killing those flame-spewing creatures which I've decided to call 'fiery blowhogs.' I counted ten of them scattered around the pool of water, which was holding an amphibious creature that I've decided to call a 'wollywog.' As you said, the red pikmin were not harmed by the flames, much to my surprise.

"It didn't take me too long to kill them all, so I turned my attention to a black wall that was located nearby. I discovered that it was made of metal, and the pikmin had absolutely no affect on them. After many failed attempts, I decided to harvest the wollywog and blowhog bodies. I had to take two trips due to the lack of pikmin. Once I had gotten all of the pikmin harvested, I put most of them away. I left out a few and went to see you. It was a short trip, due to the bridges we built, and I found you.

"We're working fairly well together," Olimar chuckled. "Maybe it was a good thing that I bumped into you on the planet when I crashed."

It was a shot, but a good-humored shot, so I chuckled along with him. "Maybe. Let's just hope our good luck continues. How many days you have with that thing?"

"Twenty-six. How many do you have on yours?"

I was silent. I had absolutely no idea. I told him this and he raised his eyebrow.

"How could you possibly have not known when your life-support system is supposed to lose power?" He asked as he lifted my arm. He looked at it carefully and, to my horror, gasped.

"Fifteen days..." He whispered so softly that I could barely hear him. Sadly, I did hear him, and I asked him what he meant. "Your life-support system is one of the earlier models; one that lasts half as long as the one I have. The problem is: We got rid of those years ago. How could you possibly have gotten one this outdated unless-" His eyes opened to where I could see it entirely, something that I had only seen in Pikmin 2 and Brawl. "-how long did you say you were on the planet?"

I was silent. I didn't want to lie to him, especially since we've finally began to bond, but I could not tell him the truth. I was stuck in a corner surrounded by mousetraps. "I don't remember; I can't remember anything beyond meeting you. When I, err, saw your ship coming down, I thought you were a rescue team, or something. Then I saw you waking up and hid. Before that it's a blur."

My story wouldn't have convinced me, but Olimar bought it and he nodded. "Well I'm sorry that I'm as stranded as you are. I can't believe you only have fifteen days left. We'll have to be fast in gathering up the remaining twenty-two parts."

"We can get two tomorrow easily; I saw two of them close by after we beat the shearwigs. The other parts in this place, however, I'm not too sure we can get. It all depends on if the blowhogs and wollywogs we beat today come back tomorrow."

"Wait," Olimar interrupted. "The creatures we killed can come back? How?"

"Too complicated to explain," I said, trying to avoid the question and not reveal anything I might regret later. "Whenever I've said this, you've obeyed and we get through the day , so just trust me."

Olimar nodded. We exchanged good nights and went to sleep. I dreamt about the Forest Navel and possibly my worst enemy in the game: The Beady Long Legs.

Day Five...

I woke up about to scream, after having a realistic nightmare about being trapped in a corner with no pikmin and thirty Long Legs trying to crush me to death. I stopped myself, not wanting to scare Olimar or - remember that I hadn't completely woken up yet - attract the Beadys. After shaking my head and putting on the spacesuit (the thing was a pain in the ass to sleep in) that had mysteriously appeared when I first met Olimar, I walked to the front of the ship.

There, Olimar was waiting in the kitchen, alone, staring solemnly at his space noodles. At first I assumed it was because they were cold, and that we couldn't wait to get the generator in the Impact Site, but then I realized how lonely and afraid he must have been. All he had was me, a strange, awkward teenage boy, who he'd never met before. He was trapped on an unfamiliar, hostile planet with his only means of escape broken into twenty three or so pieces. After worshipping Olimar and the Pikmin games so much, and seeing him depressed like that, I felt horrible.

I walked over and sat down across from him while unwrapping a package of "Instant Space Noodles [i](with twenty percent more flavor)[/i]". I grabbed a spoon (which was shaped like a pikmin for some odd reason) and began chewing. We sat in an awkward silence, and when Olimar sighed I was close to tears.

"You okay, Olimar?" I asked sincerely. "Anything you'd like to talk with me about?"

Olimar shook his head in response. I frowned and stared at my noodles, not wanting to eat any more. Remembering that I, according to Olimar's knowledge, had no idea who Olimar was or what is life was like before the crash, I decided to attempt small conversation.

"Did you have anyone at home?" I asked. "Family? Friends?"

Olimar slightly smirked and he gave a light chuckle. He looked at me and asked, "Who are you?"

I was stunned by the question. Olimar saw it in my eyes and he frowned again, this time in doubt. "I want to know, Jason, how you got here and why you're helping me."

"I-I...," I stuttered. My facade was going to fail soon. Olimar was doubting me, which I knew couldn't be good for our teamwork. "My name is Jason Smith, as I said before. I was... a stowaway. I wanted out of Hocotate and I thought that, since you were such a famous pilot, you'd take me to a place free from all the horrible things that happen up there." Pathetic attempt, but if it saved my butt then I couldn't care less.

"Why would you want to leave Hocotate? It's such a wonderful place. I couldn't possibly imagine leaving forever." Olimar said with false sincerity. I could tell that it was a trap, and he meant the opposite of what he said.

I didn't buy it, remembering the small part of Hocotate I had seen in Pikmin 2, and gave a shot in the dark: "Are you crazy? The place is a desolate wasteland. Your Freight Company is one of the largest things there, which isn't saying much. Why would you possibly want to go back?" I purposely raised my voice, thinking that being a teen would help.

"I don't." Olimar countered. "I love my wife and my children; my dog, Bulby. Louie's a true friend. My boss, though greedy, is always fun to be around. But I cannot stand Hocotate in general. My job, though exciting, is horrible. The economy's collapsed, along with the ecosystem (and don't ask me how it happened, because it happened too fast for us 'non-government officials' to realize what happened). The place is going to Murtiv."

Having no idea what that last word was, I watched him as he stood up and walked to the door. I followed him and he turned to me one last time:

"The reason you saw me like that wasn't because I missed Hocotate. I was debating, despite how hostile this place is, whether or not to stay here once my rocket was rebuilt."

----------------

After that escapade in the "kitchen", we walked out of the rocket and into the Forest Navel. I hoped what had happened earlier wouldn't affect our teamwork, but I knew it wouldn't help. My plan was to get the spring, the Space Float, and possibly the ship part in the water. That'd leave us with the parts behind the black wall and the Beady Long Legs part. I hate the Forest Navel and didn't want to spend three days here, especially when I only had fifteen days to live, but I had to do it to survive the game, or adventure, or whatever.

First, we ran to the red and blue onions to pluck the remaining fifteen sprouts (which were only leaves despite being in the ground overnight). I turned to Olimar and told him to get fifty blue pikmin. He did so while I took out fifty reds. We jumped down the small cliff and walked over the bridges. I took a look around the arena and was relieved to find out that none of the blowhogs that we had killed yesterday survived. With a grin, I turned around and commanded: "Go into the pool of water and get the ship part in there. I'll take the ship part up on that ledge, okay?"

To my relief he nodded and we went our separate ways. I heard a light splash and saw Olimar disappear into the pool out of the corner of my eye. I walked to the cliff where I knew I had to throw pikmin onto it in order for them to build the bridge. Unfortunately, I forgot about my throwing "skills" and realized too late how far I could truly throw them. I frowned as the first few pikmin I threw landed on the edge of the cliff and fell off.

"Well this is just freaking perfect!" I growled. I looked behind me, still scared of a possible Beady Long Legs attack, and saw nothing but darkness. I grabbed a pikmin, took several steps backwards, ran and threw the pikmin at the same time. The extra momentum caused the pikmin to fly over the bridge and between the spring and bridge. I didn't know what it did, but the point was that I got a pikmin over the cliff.

I repeated this until around twenty pikmin were on the cliff, either building or holding the spring (I couldn't tell from this angle) so while they were building I decided to search for the breadbug. I walked over to the hole, defying gravity again as I stood directly over it, and stomped on it several times. Nothing happened, so I put my face into the dirt and yelled random gibberish. Yet again, nothing happened.

Frowning, I walked back to the bridge. The pikmin had built, or unveiled, the first three layers, so I had some time to waste. I turned to my pikmin and bent down until I was at their height. I raised my hands and waved them around in a random pattern, grinning as the pikmin followed their movements curiously. I patted a pikmin on its head and its eyes closed happily.

"Just like a dog," I said and stood to full height. Turning around, I was greeted by one of the last things I expected to see: The breadbug. I screamed and fell backwards, my pikmin having to scramble away to avoid getting crushed.

The breadbug was around the size of me, which was how large it was in the pikmin games. Its hide, no doubt, was still too thick to attract pikmin. It didn't look any different or was any more powerful than in the games. Why, though, did appear now and not when I wanted it to?

I got back to my feet and threw a pikmin on top of it. To my amazement, the breadbug whined and dramatically rolled onto its back in pain, before getting back to its feet and shaking its head; exactly as it did in the games. What it did now that it did not do in the games was take three steps backwards and charge at me. It knocked me backwards several "feet" and killed two of my pikmin before stopping. It shook its head again and walked around like nothing happened.

I got to my feet and swore, as well as asking nobody in particular how that happened or why. All I knew was that it was another change from the games that I didn't like. I whistled my pikmin and gathered them together, and began throwing them onto the breadbug. I took no breaks and only stopped for a split second to whistle my pikmin back once I had run out of them. After ten or so hits, the breadbug died and the Space Float magically appeared as it did in the games (just as unrealistically now as it was then). I called my pikmin back and swarmed the Space Float.

I watched the pikmin carry it away and walked back to the bridge, which had now been completed. The twenty pikmin left, however, were not enough to carry the spring and, therefore, were useless. I groaned and called them to me. I swarmed the dead breadbug body and was left with fourteen pikmin.

I walked around the pool of water, seeing no sign of Olimar or the blue pikmin as I did so. I reached my destination: The black, destructible wall and the fiery blowhog that Olimar hadn't killed yesterday. I avoided the blowhog for now and, dodging the flames, swarmed the wall. When all of my pikmin were attacking it (because I knew they were safe) I walked away and followed the pikmin carrying the Space Float. I met them as they were climbing the second bridge, so I walked with them until they reached the rocket (while I plucked the pikmin under the red onion).

The Space Float was sucked into the rocket, and I made a mental note that there were nine ship parts left. I also realized two things: One good and one bad. The good news: We only had three ship parts to go until we could go to the Distant Spring. The bad news: I had two ship parts to get today. One was the spring and the other was the wing of the ship, which I hadn't gotten yesterday. And to make matters worse, the day was now half-way over, and I still hadn't seen Olimar since we split up!


	10. Chapter 9: Inside the Beast

Chapter 9: Inside the Beast

Slightly panicking, I whistled my forty-eight remaining red pikmin and began sprinting towards the pool. Shortly after, I reached it and looked around for Olimar. I heard no splashing and saw no sign of him or of his pikmin. I crept around the edge of the pool and swarmed all but three of my pikmin around the spring. The remaining three I "pressed X" and abandoned them.

While the pikmin carried the spring towards the rocket, I took several deep breaths to calm myself, still slightly worried about a sudden Beady attack, and jumped into the water. The water was just shallow enough for me to touch the bottom while my eyes stayed above the surface. Cautiously, I walked through the water towards the shadow of the monolith known as the sunken bottle. Upon reaching it, I looked around at all angles, but saw no sign of anything in the games: the dead bodies of the frogs, the treasure, or Olimar's leftover pikmin.

"Where on..." I paused, trying to recall the word Olimar had used earlier. "Where the Murtiv is Olimar?" I assumed Murtiv was a synonym for our Hell, and went along with it.

I scouted an imaginary circumference around the bottle, but saw absolutely nothing besides the bottle and water. I gave up and sulked towards a random direction. After taking few steps, I felt a rumbling beneath me. Looking down, I saw a small cyclone appear in the water, its bottom touching a growing hole in the ground. I jumped backwards just as the hole expanded a vast amount, and then disappeared just as quickly.

Breathing heavily, I got to my feet and observed the ground from a distance. There were no cracks or any signs of movement of the earth, but I was not hallucinating. I pondered this for a bit. Everything that was supposed to be here was gone. Olimar was also gone, along with all of our blue pikmin. This hole randomly appears as soon as I step within the vicinity.

Sighing, though slightly excited, I realized what I had to do. I walked towards where the hole had appeared before and watched as it repeated the process. A small hole, just large enough to get your attention, appears to distract you. Then, some sort of mouth in the ground opens up and swallows you. This is what happened to me, though it surprised me very little.

I was falling down a slide, into what I assumed was a monster's throat. This hadn't happened in the games, but I had no idea I was going to find out why.

------------

I landed on pink ground just soft enough not to injure me, despite falling many times my height. I looked around, taking note of the pink, slimy walls and equally slimy ceiling. There was only one exit from this "room" aside from the ceiling: a long, red hallway that was throbbing very slightly.

I picked myself up and muttered a Wizard of Oz joke, and then walked down the throbbing hallway. There was only one other exit from this as well, so I followed down it and continued down the boring, one-way path through this monster's body. Only when I reached the end did I see something slightly interesting. Olimar was sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by forty five pikmin, three dead wollywog bodies, and the ship part that he had been searching for in the first place.

He looked at me as I came in the room and slyly smiled. "Welcome, care to take a seat?"

"Not funny," I replied, and he frowned. "Do you know any way out?"

"Well, originally I came here with all fifty pikmin," He pointed at a spot in the floor. "So when I reached this room, I found this exit. Five of my pikmin went before me, and fell into this black abyss."

"Abyss?" I repeated, stepping towards it.

"Be careful," he warned, getting to his feet. "It opens up when you're close enough."

Taking his warning in mind, I crept closer to it. As I was literally stepping at the edge of the spot, it suddenly opened beneath me. I only had a fraction of a second to see that Olimar was indeed correct about the abyss before it almost sucked me in. Olimar must have known that I would get too close, for he grabbed my suit and threw me back into the room. The hole closed as soon as Olimar stepped away from it.

We were both panting from the adrenaline rush. I patted him on the back, gasping my thanks, while looking around the room. There were no noticeable exits to speak of.

"So now what do we do?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I'm afraid we're stuck. We must be in this beast's stomach, so soon its digestive juices will burn us alive. If we're lucky, we'll die before we feel too much pain." He said this with acceptance, but I was close to hyperventilating.

"W-we can't die! Not here!" I shouted. Poor Olimar couldn't drown out my voice with his ears. "Not today! Not on day five! Maybe against the final boss, but not here!"

"Final boss?" He repeated. I winced, and looked away, and winced again. I swore to myself as he stepped closer to me. "What do you mean, 'final boss'? As in, a game?"

"Absolutely not!" I shouted unconvincingly. "A game? Ha-ha! I laugh at your absurd suggestion!"

"Jason..."

"This is life! This is no game!"

"Jason, please."

"We must press onward, if we are to survive this... life, and not game!"

"Jason, enough."

"But you don't-"

"Shut up."

He wasn't loud. He didn't yell. But it was a command, so I obeyed. I apologized and cursed myself for my fit of hysteria. I glanced at him and saw his head was turned away from me, and I hoped that he didn't doubt anything, though I had given him no reason not to. There was nothing I could say to convince him otherwise. My panic might be enough to excuse the outburst, but I doubted it.

We sat in silence for several minutes, and I wondered what the pikmin were doing above. I didn't know what time it was, but I hoped we'd have enough time to get back to the rocket before any nocturnal creatures came. If we came back out at all.

The silence was broken by nobody in this room, but by the wind. There was a sudden push of wind, so strong that it began sucking pikmin into the air and out of the room. Very soon it became so strong that Olimar and I, after struggling to hold onto folds in the floor, were sucked out as well. We hit the soft walls as we bounced down the hallway, having no control over our direction and only hoping we wouldn't hit anything sharp. Very soon we reached the first room possible and were sucked up through the hole in the ceiling and out of the beast's mouth.

--------------------

We landed in a pile of brown gunk, but had little time to worry about it. The beast that had sucked us out was heading towards us, and we had to dig our way out of the cohesive mess. We managed to dig our way out and threw ourselves out of the way in time for the beast to storm through the slop and continue on its way.

The beast, amazingly, was a miniature (technically, as it towered over us more than the giant Long Legs creatures) elephant. It did not have eats, it had no tail, it was vastly thinner and its head was smaller, but the shape was similar to an elephant. It was grey and its skin looked rough, it had four pairs of legs with round hooves, it had a large nose with one nostril, technically making it a trunk with a hole in it, larger than Olimar and I combined. It had two sharp tusks that curved in such a way that if it ducked its head down, they would slice through us. It also had a large mouth that covered half of its face filled with sharp teeth.

It had dumped us into a large, upside-down bowl. The bole seemed to be able to fit ten of the elephants and was three elephants high. The high ceiling had stalactites covering the majority of it, with the only uncovered section being a large hole that was the only light in the room. The bowl was underground, so the walls, floor, and ceiling were all shades of brown and black. The ground was rocky, though some parts were smeared with distinguishable feces. There were small boulders scattered around, though many had been smashed into pieces.

It trampled by at an amazing speed, enough so that it came very close to crashing into the wall. Instead, it changed direction, only slightly slowing down, and continued in a wide arc that would inevitably aim for us again. I called several scattered pikmin to me while Olimar did the same, and we began sprinting away. The elephant came at us again, and we crazily waited until the last moment before diving away again.

Only one of our pikmin had been killed by the elephant. I saw it being crushed by one of the elephants giant hooves, with the elephant being completely oblivious. Glancing at the elephant making another wide arc towards us, we gathered the remaining pikmin and I gave all of them to Olimar.

"We need a plan!" I shouted.

"I'm trying to think of one." He replied. "His obvious flaw is his speed. If we can use it to our advantage, then we can kill it."

"The stalagmites?" I offered.

"They're stalactites, but they could play a key role." He answered.

The elephant had reached us by this time, so we dove aside. It yelled exactly like an elephant in frustration and arced once more. Olimar used this time to pull me to him and whispered, "Get into the corner, and hurry."

I nodded and we both ran to the nearest corner. The elephant saw us running and turned to follow us, continuing its drawn-out yell. The elephant's footsteps grew nearer and I couldn't dare look behind. We were so close to the corner and the elephant seemed to be upon us, its footsteps deafening. We crashed into the corner at the same time as the elephant. The elephant shrieked in pain and a few stalactites fell from the ceiling. It hadn't been damaged by the crash into the wall, but the single stalactite that struck its head dropped its health down around an eighth.

Olimar took this time to throw several pikmin onto the elephant's ducked head. They began hitting it, surprisingly bringing its health down. The elephant regained itself, yelled, and shook its head, throwing the pikmin away. Its health was in the yellow now, down just under half. The plan had worked, and Olimar and I knew what to do.

The elephant slowly backed away, shaking its head repeatedly to remove any clinging pikmin, before turning around and gaining speed. Olimar and I gathered all of the pikmin and waited for the elephant to come at us again. Amazingly, apparently forgetting any pain from before, it repeated what it had done before. It crashed into the wall and stalactites fell down, this time three hitting it and dropping its health down a large amount. Olimar threw as many pikmin onto it, and thus its health dropped to zero.

The spectacular creature gave a final yell before collapsing onto its left side. As it yelled, the Anti-Dioxin Filter flew out of its trunk and landed several feet away. As it fell, the resulting shockwave split open a boulder that was coincidently beneath the hole in the ground. Water spewed from the triangle-shaped rock, and I remembered from the sequel, and not the original, that geysers were used in caves to transport the player back to the surface.

"What is that?" He asked, pointing at the geyser.

"Would you call it a geyser?" I replied, continuing the facade even though Olimar probably didn't have any reason to believe me.

He nodded and got out the notebook from earlier and began documenting everything that had recently happened. I studied the elephant, recalling with disgust that we had been in the creature's stomach just a few minutes earlier. What I didn't understand, though, was that hole that led to the abyss. Slightly afraid, I walked to the creature's backside and poked it. The hole from earlier opened up and I gagged.

"What are you going to call this thing?" I asked.

"I am not too sure. This looks nothing like anything on Hocotate." Olimar replied.

"How about 'Elephant'." I offered

"Does it stand for anything special?" I shook my head in reply and he nodded. "Then Elephant it is."

While he continued documenting, I gathered up the pikmin a third time and made them swarm the ship part. They carried it to the geyser and actually jumped into the stream. They then carried it out of the hole and to the surface.

Olimar watched them do this with his mouth open. Even though we had just been attacked by an elephant, he continued to be surprised. He walked up to me and muttered, "How did they know to do that?" I shrugged and looked back at the elephant. There I saw a lone pikmin that I had forgotten trying to lift the dead creature. I looked above the body and saw the numbers 1/3000.

"Three thousand pikmin needed to lift this thing." I gasped. "That's not even possible!"

"It's a shame, though. The creature would creature an awfully large amount of pikmin." Olimar noted.

I whistled the pikmin and we headed towards the geyser when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head to the left and saw a giant snake's head staring out from the wall. The head seemed to be three times our size, with a large slits for eyes and a large mouth with a red forked tongue that appeared and disappeared in an instant. I opened my mouth to scream, but the snake hissed and ducked its head back into the wall before I had a chance to. The whole thing lasted little over two seconds, but I was frozen.

Olimar ran back to me and asked me what was going on. I slowly recovered and told him and he shook his head. "A snake? I've never heard of it. Where are you getting these names?"

"It was a giant snake!" I yelled, yet again close to hysteria. "Can we just get out of here? Please?"

He nodded, glancing at where the snake had been. I saw that he too became more nervous. We wasted no time in jumping into the geyser and rocketing up to the surface.


	11. Chapter 10: New Considerations

Chapter Ten: New Considerations

Day Six...

I was still shaken up after seeing the giant snake; never had I seen a creature that even resembled it in the games. Of course, the same could be said for the elephant, but elephants are much less creepy and deadly. Sure, there have been incidents, but they rarely happen. Snakes have poison and their bites hurt. You can't really see them through thick foliage and their attacks can be fatal. The same doesn't really apply to what I had seen earlier, but it still maintained its deadliness.

Hold on, I'm wrong. The blowhogs resemble elephants somewhat, with their large trunks and grey colors. That made it even more frightening: there could be smaller snakes in one of the levels. Invisible snakes could be lurking somewhere. I thought none of these things as we were rocketing up to the surface, but what I've just said only increases the danger of our situation. At any point we could have been ambushed and overwhelmed by the second scariest animal alive. Second only to, of course, spiders.

My first thoughts at the time were as follows: Oh my god what a freaking horrible creature! Was I just imagining it or did I really see it? I've never seen a snake in the games. It can burrow underground too! It could appear anywhere! My most fearful thought, that was so scary I voiced it aloud, was this: "What if it has hands? What if it has human hands?"

Although Olimar couldn't understand my words due to the roar of the geyser, he looked at me in confusion. I hid my frightened face and tried desperately to calm myself. I thought about our situation. The positives: we had defeated, what I assumed, was an underground boss. We had obtained the ship part and thus only had one more to go before we could go to the Distant Spring. We were alive. The negatives: I had forgotten to get the wing of the ship again. I had seen one of the most frightening creatures in the Pikmin games. We wasted far too much time with the boss and had probably stayed in the creature for a majority of the night. If the nocturnal creatures were still out, we'd be in Murtiv.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity because of my thoughts, we were blown out of the ground and landed in the pool of water. The hole from which we were shot out was located inside the bottle. Thus, another mystery from the games had been solved.

After surveying the land, Olimar came to a conclusion. "There is a good news and bad news, Jason. We have spent the entire night in the beast. It's morning. However, we have another of my ship's parts. We may only have fourteen days left, but soon we will only have to get nineteen parts. At the rate we're going, we'll make it."

Oh yeah. My suit. I had forgotten, and his reminder didn't help my attitude. "Yeah," I said. "It's great. I won't die."

"Not from the atmosphere, at least," corrected Olimar. He glanced at the disappearing ship part. "There are still plenty of creatures that can kill us, including your snake."

"You aren't helping," I muttered. "Are you ready for today's plan?"

"That was quick," Olimar commented. His mouth twitched as he tried to smirk. "You've planned for this, I suppose."

I ignored his comment and told him my plan. I had to get the wing, and would do so while Olimar takes all of the remaining pikmin and destroys the black wall blocking the path to two of the ship parts. When my job was finished, I would meet up with him and help destroy the wall.

After we followed the pikmin, being careful to watch for any surviving shearwigs, and getting out the required number of pikmin from the onions, we separated and did our respective jobs. The plan went perfectly, not that there was any reason for it not to be. We had killed most of the enemies the past two days and they didn't respawn. I avoided the flame geysers, "c-sticked" my pikmin to the ship's wing, and performed the incredibly boring job of following the pikmin as they slowly carried the darn wing up the long path to the ship.

"If I learn anything from this," I muttered as we reached the rocket. "Creating these long paths that we have to walk across that bend and twist and turn an irritating amount of times is completely stupid. There's a complaint I have with the game. The bulborbs become invincible when about to bite and the paths are too long." Finally, the pikmin reached the rocket and I watched - somewhat guiltily - as I was the only one to witness the rocket upgrading and that strange whisk growing out of the rocket.

"That's the second time Olimar hasn't been able to witness his rocket," I said to a pikmin that happened to be looking at me. "I cheated him out of this extraordinary, impossible experience." The pikmin said nothing in response so I assumed it agreed with me. I called the pikmin and walked straight to Olimar. There, I saw a dead blowhog, several pikmin beating the wall down to its last level, and a bored-looking Olimar staring at the ground. I "c-sticked" the pikmin to the wall and we watched them hit the wall.

"Jason, please, I have to know why you know this planet so well," Olimar said calmly. "You do not look like a Hocotatian. You are not from Hocotate, although I don't know how you have managed to obtain a suit. An old, slightly damaged suit as well. You are not from this planet or you wouldn't need the suit. Who are you? Why are you here? How do you know so much?"

"I don't know anything, Olimar," I said, rather hastily. "Do you know how scared I was when I saw that snake? I've never seen anything like that, or the elephant, or the hand, or felt a gust of wind that powerful."

"You haven't answered any of my questions," Olimar stated. "Please, Jason, in order to trust you I need to know the truth."

"Haven't I given you enough proof of my trust already-" I began, but Olimar interrupted.

"No. As you've just said, although you seem to know a lot about this planet, you don't know everything. What you don't know could mean death for both of us. In order to trust you, you have to tell me why you know what you know. That way, we can plan for the rest of our time here and for more unexpected surprises. If you tell me the truth, we'll have the best chance of making it out alive."

I couldn't let that happen; I had to make this trip as difficult and exciting as possible. I answered, "I can't tell you, Olimar. I'm sorry, but for now I can't tell you."

"You don't want to escape?"

"I want to escape. That's the reason why I can't tell you."

Olimar frowned. "That means I won't like the answer. That makes it even more important that I know the answer now, Jason. Especially when, according to you, we won't have any obstacles. If it's something that I may not be able to handle, I'll need as much time as possible to recover."

"What if you take too long to recover? What if you mope and give up for three days? What if you never recover?" I stood up. "I'm sorry, but I can't risk it, Olimar. Not yet."

Before Olimar could answer, the pikmin destroyed the final section of the wall. I whistled the pikmin, "c-sticked" them to the wall, avoiding the fire geysers, and moved away from Olimar before he could speak. I quickly reached the area with the bridge leading to the island. I separated the pikmin into groups and took twenty blue pikmin, keeping close to the wall as I traveled, to the yellow computer in the pool of water. I swarmed the computer, waited until the pikmin carried it out of the water, and called the pikmin back. Finally, I met up with Olimar, who to my relief had led the remaining pikmin to the bridge and was watching them build it.

After watching them in silence, the pikmin finished the bridge. We separated them and, while Olimar worked on the small puzzle that led to one of the ship parts, I traveled to the computer with 20 red pikmin and let them carry it to the rocket. When I returned, Olimar had solved the puzzle, thanks to my advice, and was surprisingly on his knees and staring at the ship part.

"Olimar?" I asked, confused. I then realized what the treasure was, and Olimar confirmed my realization a few seconds later.

"This is a present that was given to be my daughter," Olimar whispered. "She gave it to me just two years ago. She's such a beautiful, thoughtful girl. I- I miss her." He looked at me, tears filling his eyes. "Jason, I could have left here without it. I could have lost it forever. Thank you for helping me recover it. I'm sorry for my suspicions."

I smiled, thinking to myself, I couldn't have left without it; the game wouldn't let me. I waited for him to speak again: "Jason, you knew this was here. Is there another similar ship part? It's called a Sagittarius."

I thought for a few seconds, recalled a ship part, and replied, "Yes, there is. It's in the Forest of Hope."

"Good, good," whispered Olimar, turning back to the Libra. "Jason, could you leave the pikmin here. I need a few moments."

I nodded, left the pikmin with Olimar, and followed the other pikmin as they carried their pikmin to the rocket. I figured that now was as good a time as any to think about this situation.

"Although, really, I doubt I won't have a lot of time to think," I continued my thought out loud. "There are only three possibilities for this adventure. The first I have eliminated: a dream. It can't be a dream for a few reasons. First, I haven't woken up. If this was a normal dream, I wouldn't have made it past the first day. Second, for at least a fourth of the time here, we have been waiting for you pikmin to finish building, destroying, or carrying. Third, I am incredibly weak. It would be the other way around if it was my dream. Finally, this wouldn't be so much like the game. There would be no giant snake, there would be explosions and babes and you pikmin would be swearing and drinking booze. Action would happen every moment and it'd be epic."

I looked at the pikmin and continued. "This leaves two others: This is real and is actually happening, or this is a realistic experience that my mind is having while my body rests peacefully and unconsciously. Something like the movies, where the main actor imagines something that seems realistic, but doesn't happen. I'm not sure which to believe, but I know I'd prefer this not to be real. I'm sorry, pikmin, because I know it hurts your feelings, but Olimar and I have caused many deaths. I don't want those deaths to have actually happened. Olimar, too, I don't want to actually let down if we fail. Then there's this suit; if we're too slow and my suit actually runs out of power, I don't want to actually die."

I thought I head Olimar approaching, so I silenced and waited. Nothing happened, so I continued in a whisper. "Finally, there are the days we haven't lived. We've been through most of the easy stuff. Sure, we're almost done with this area, but we have to face the Beady Long Legs. We also have to face the Burrowing Snagrets, the Emperor Bulblax, the Armored Cannon Beetles, the Spotty Bulbears, and the Puffy Blowhogs. If we're really unlucky, we'll have to face the Snake, the creature with the hand if that isn't already the Snake, the creature that blew the wind, if that was a creature, and other creatures that weren't even in the games. We may almost be half way through the game, but this was the easy part. We have a long, long way to go before we get off."

I had finished my thoughts and waited for Olimar to arrive. He did so many minutes later, following the Libra, when it was nearing night. Not that I was disappointed, but it was far too late to finish the Beady Long Legs puzzle. Olimar also offered an alternate suggestion, which I wholeheartedly agreed with.

"Jason, can we please go to the Forest of Hope tomorrow," he asked. "I don't know if it intereferes with your plans, but I want to get the Sagittarius as soon as possible."

And so, the day ended with us getting four ship parts and, after several awkward conversations, Olimar and I renewing our trust. I was more than happy to fulfill Olimar's request. So the next day we were going to tackle the Forest of Hope.

End of Day 6

Ship Parts: 14/30

Red: 60

Blue: 130

Yellow: 45


	12. Chapter 11: Yellow pikmin? Useful?

Chapter 11: Yellow pikmin? Useful for once?

Day seven…

Let me remind you of the following, my friend: Olimar had 23 days to live, while I had only 13. We had collected 14 of the ship parts, leaving 16 left. We had plenty of pikmin for the rest of the adventure; well over one hundred blues, over fifty reds and an irrelevant number of yellows. I know, I know, I shouldn't favor pikmin, but be reasonable: yellows are useless for most of the game. You could have a maximum of 20 and be perfectly fine. Anyway, we were doing well, doing much better than I had ever done in any of my other playthroughs. We had to be, because we were going to face one of our toughest days yet.

I had a plan, as always, which gave Olimar suspicions, as always, but he didn't complain because the plan involved the rescue of a treasured possession. He was to get most of our blues and take down the bridges, and I was to get the remainder of the blues and start attacking the black wall leading to that armored cannon beetle…

Pardon that shudder; I hate those dang things. They aren't as scary as the Long Legs… sorry again. But they were a real pain to try to take down if you didn't know the secret. I did, but remember: I couldn't throw any higher than a dwarf bulborb, and those beetles' holes were as high as a regular one.

I kept all of that in mind as we landed and sprinted to the onion. I saw out of the corner of my eye the revived bulborbs and whispered to Olimar, "Do not kill anything that is out of your way. We need to be quick about this, and we have plenty of pikmin."

Olimar nodded. He got around seventy and, after plucking nectar to increase the number of flowers, he left the area. I took thirty and, hugging the walls to avoid the bulborbs, reached the black wall. I abandoned the pikmin to take down the wall, thought for a minute, and whistled a pikmin.

"There is going to be no searching today," I told the pikmin. "We're going to activate that gust of wind without sacrificing the entire army." I realized that this pikmin might be sacrificed instead, so I kept a firm grip on it as I ran through the ship arena and, again avoiding everything, towards the original spot. My grip tightened protectively as I stepped cautiously past the can and the broken down steel wall, not thinking about anything; not the nearby bulborbs, not the hand, not even the gust of wind that I would inevitably find. I kept my mind clear and my fears nonexistent. The pikmin and I took a few steps into the area before we were blasted backwards by the wind; wind so powerful that it was visible, little white curving lines that separated my pikmin and I despite my tight grip. I landed in the large pool of water with a large crash, nearly cracking my helmet although cracking my skull, and slipped unconscious.

I woke up to Olimar banging on my helmet and shouting at me. I looked behind him and saw the Sagittarius being carried away.

"What happened to you?" Olimar asked as he helped me to my feet. "You just crashed, you left a decent-sized crater, and you fell asleep."

"Remember that gust of wind I told you about when you were unconscious?" I asked.

"I probably don't remember anything you told me if I wasn't conscious," Olimar replied cheekily.

"You know what I mean, and I tried to set it off so it wouldn't interfere," I replied.

"A predator will always guard its territory; it will rarely leave," said Olimar. "I'm sure that if it attacked once, it'll attack again."

"I didn't nearly die for nothing," I said. "Whatever, we'll find out later. You got your son's gift, did you?"

Olimar nodded. "Such a brave young man. I can't wait to see him again."

I felt almost out of place saying this, and I hesitated before patting Olimar on the back: "Just like his father." Whatever, it made Olimar happy, and he gave me his most genuine smile before we walked to the ship. After calling back the idle pikmin and swarming the bulborbs that were in our way, losing none due to our numbers, we reached the black wall which was close to destruction. We could see the armored cannon beetle, much larger than it was in the game with a hole close to unreachable.

"That isn't possible," I muttered. "How the heck are we supposed to beat it?"

"That shell looks too thick to penetrate," noted Olimar. "The only opening I can see from its front is that hole at the top of its head, but it looks too high for the average pikmin to reach."

I dropped to the ground. "This isn't how it is supposed to happen!"

Olimar glanced at me. "I suppose you already knew about this."

"Yeah, I knew about the creature. I know it's guarding a ship part. I know it's one mean son-of-a-gun to kill. And I know that is not the same thing I expected. You're right Olimar: that hole is the only way to defeat it, and we can't reach it."

Olimar looked behind us. "There's always yellow pikmin."

Rarely did I ever use the yellow pikmin, so I hadn't considered and blatantly forgot about them. "They could reach it. I didn't think of that."

Olimar whistled the majority of the blue pikmin. "I'll get them, then." He raced off. The remaining blue pikmin demolished the wall and left me facing the beetle. It stood still, staring at me with those empty blue eyes, waiting for me to move. I whistled the pikmin and glanced around the arena, noticing the nook that contained the next ship part. A quick look at the sun told me we had two-thirds of the day to go; plenty of time for us to get both parts despite our lack of yellows.

Then I realized that this boss may not have only had its size increased, but its pattern changed for the harder. I hid my pikmin behind the wall and stepped into the arena, keeping my eyes on the behemoth in front of me. Shape-wise it was the same as the games; size-wise it towered over me. Pattern-wise, well, I found out the hard way that it had changed.

As I stepped closer to the creature, it took a step backward, hitting the wall, and placed its back legs on the wall. It then pushed forward, curled into a ball, and rolled at an incredibly quick speed at me. I barely dodged as it crashed into the wall, leaving a large crater and, unlike the elephant, unfazed by the crash. It turned around immediately and started rearing back again. Only this time, is sucked in a large amount of air and, in rapid succession, fired three boulders in a fork-like pattern. I ran between two of the boulders and watched them crash into the opposite wall. It then rolled forward and I dodged it and sprinted out of the arena.

I dove into my pikmin, keeping myself hidden amongst them to catch my breath. "What happened?" Olimar asked as he climbed up the sloped path. He had thrown the yellow pikmin onto the ledge and whistled them. "You look tired, and I heard crashing and rumbling. Did you try to take on the beast?"

"I just wanted to see its pattern," I gasped. "Is that so wrong?"

"It's an intelligent idea, but we're a team and should work together. You should've waited until I arrived to help you. What did you discover?"

Between deep breaths, I explained the trials I had faced. Olimar studied the beetle, which had retreated back to the far side of the arena and stared back at us, carefully while I spoke.

"It sucks in air through its hole," Olimar whispered. "It expands?"

"Yeah, it grows."

"Do you have a plan?"

"I used to. I don't now."

"Then listen to my plan."

* * *

The day was now half-over when we stepped into the arena. Olimar had all of the yellows, the blues were safely hidden, and I was alone. I ran forward, slightly away from Olimar, screaming to get the beast's attention. The beetle rolled at me and I dodged to the side. It rolled at me again, I dodged, it crashed next to Olimar. Olimar kept as hidden as possible while I ran to the middle of the arena. The beetle started sucking, and that's when Olimar threw as many yellows as possible at its hole. The pikmin bounced harmlessly off of its shell, either landing too far to the side or too low. I managed to dodge its rocks, but I shouted at Olimar to hurry up.

"I need to get the right angle," Olimar shouted back, gathering the idle pikmin as the beetle rolled towards me again. "You're doing fine; just don't trip."

I flipped him off, but he didn't notice, and I was nearly crushed as a result. The beetle had rolled unexpectedly quickly and I had just a fraction of a second to escape. The beetle landed near Olimar and I ran to the center again. This time, however, Olimar managed to throw a pikmin into the beetle's hole, blocking its airhole and forcing the beetle to open its shell to vent the excess heat.

"This looks like only red pikmin could harm it," yelled Olimar.

"No, no," I panted. "It's fine. Just throw. Hurry."

Olimar threw a single pikmin, noticed it didn't burn, and threw as many pikmin as possible onto the creature's abdomen. The pikmin knocked half of its health out before the beetle shook everything off and snapped its shell shut. Olimar whistled the pikmin back and I groaned before taking my position.

This time, things went horribly wrong. The beetle turned towards Olimar, despite the little space between them, and charged. Olimar managed to dodge, but half of his pikmin, half of our entire population of yellows, were crushed and killed. I shouted Olimar's name as he got to his feet, but he ignored me and faced the beetle. The beetle skipped its second charge and began to suck. Olimar threw as many pikmin as possible, not moving an inch and, should he miss, could be crushed by all of the boulders. Thankfully, one landed and clogged the hole, allowing us a second chance at killing it.

Olimar wasted no time in throwing; he threw rapidly and accurately, and as the beetle circled helplessly, trying to cool itself down, it lost the last of its health, and it fell onto its back, dead.

"You did it!" I shouted happily. I jumped to Olimar. "You beat it! You got it!"

Olimar was panting just as hard as I was, but he grinned just as broadly. "You were a fine distraction," he said. "Was that tougher than the elephant?"

I frowned. "We certainly lost more pikmin," I looked at the corpse. "We can get them back. We get all of our yellows to carry the body, then get our blues to carry the ship part."

"Will we have enough pikmin?" Olimar asked, estimating the amount of pikmin this creature would take. He threw a yellow at the corpse and the number 1/50 appeared over its head. "We'll need more pikmin."

"Right. I'll get some reds."

"Why not blues?" Olimar asked.

"Because we only have 24 yellows, and if the majority of pikmin carrying it is not yellows, which it will if I get blues, then we won't get anymore yellows."

"Good thinking," said Olimar. He walked over to his ship part, the Radiation Canopy, to repair it while I went to the onion, got the necessary pikmin, threw them onto the cliff (yes, I'm that strong now), and got everything ready. "No cracks, no leaks, no damage. Very surprising for such a crash."

I was extremely tired and cranky now. "Yes, I'm glad you don't have to strain yourself. Let's just get these back to base."

More and more obstacles. It seems like every boss in the game had been a weakened form compared to these creatures, and that worried me. The puffstool was multiplied into five, the elephant actually existed, and now the beetle was larger and had more attacks. And, of course, we hadn't even seen the Beady Freaking Long Legs. Or the Snargrets. Or the mother-of-god Emperor Bulblax. And to top everything off, even though we got everything safely to base and had more yellows than ever, we had less than a third of the day left.

And I'm hungry. I'll get us a snack.


	13. Chapter 12: The Mother of all Puzzles

Chapter 12: The Mother of all Puzzles

Alright, I have chips and soda for the both of us. Now, you remember what I talked about before I left, about yellows being useless in the games? Well, apparently Nintendo hated yellow pikmin when changing the enemies, because yellows were just as useful as reds and blues when taking down some of the bosses. Spoiler alert: we do take down the Beady Long Legs and the Burrowing Snagret, and both of them involved heavy use of yellows. There was another enemy that used yellow pikmin heavily. Heck, electricity wasn't even in the game and we came across that! That was a fun time, I'll tell you.

So yeah, don't knock yellows. They may have been useless in the game, but man they saved our lives so many times. I think blues were the least useful in our adventure, even though that's like saying Pikmin is worse than Pikmin 2: they're both fantastic, but one is slightly better than the other.

Anyway, after we took down the armored beetle and got that glass shield thing, it was time to take on the Snagrets. We had very little time left, so we had to hurry. I decided, much like my strategy in the games, to only take blue pikmin (remember, hadn't faced either of those monsters yet) to fight. I'd swarm their beaks when they got stuck and take them down within a few seconds.

Olimar and I sprinted around the sleeping bulborbs with our army of 99 pikmin and reached the second can in our path when I realized something:

"Olimar, we only have 99 pikmin. Where's that last one?" I asked.

"We searched as long as we could afford for it, Jason," Olimar replied. "Oh, there it is." He pointed at the spot where the yellow onion used to be. I turned around and saw the blue pikmin that I had carried earlier to test out the wind. You know, the wind that only appeared once that first day and never again that day.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry for the spoilers, but man did this tick me off. So I panicked when I realized the pikmin was hitting the ground, similar to what had happened that day as well. I didn't want the hand appearing again. Only this time, it appeared before I could whistle. I don't know if it appeared because the ground had been weakened enough, and that pikmin had been whacking at it all day, or if it sensed our presence, but that five-fingered, scaly (I saw it clearer that time, it wasn't human) hand burst from the ground, turned 360 around an axis, palm cupped to scoop up anything nearby, snatched the pikmin, and disappeared just as quickly.

Our number went down by one. "Oh my," I whispered, nearly dropping to my knees. "It didn't do that earlier."

Olimar was more intrigued than fearful. His mouth inched into a smile. "Extraordinary," he muttered. "Such ferocity, such hunger. Did you see a mouth or eyes on it? Could it be its own lifeform or an extension of an even larger one."

I looked at him, flabbergasted. "Are you mad? Why do you care? I don't ever want to see that thing again!"

"Normally predators wouldn't give their prey the knowledge of their attacks," explained Olimar. "The creatures of this planet seem to intentionally choreograph their patterns of attack so that we can exploit them."

"Does it matter?" I argued. "It showed us one thing: it can pop in and out of the ground instantly. That means we don't go near it. Isn't that what we were going to do in the first place? I sure don't want to fight it."

"Perhaps it holds a ship part, much like the Elephant did," said Olimar.

"It doesn't," I said firmly, but I glanced at the hand again. "At least, I sure hope it doesn't."

The sky darkened, turning into a deep blue. "We've wasted too much time," Olimar said. "It's too late to get the ship part."

"We have to try," I said. I, holding nearly half of our army, charged into the path leading to the snagrets. I made it a few steps in before I was blasted away by the gust of wind. I crashed into the opposite wall and slumped to the ground, my pikmin flying everywhere. Olimar, who had stood far enough away not to be affected by the blast, swarmed the dwarf bulborbs in his way and ran to me. He shook my dazed body as all around us bulborbs who had been hit by pikmin woke up. Our pikmin numbers dropped drastically, and only after twenty had died did I wake up.

"We have to get out of here," Olimar said quickly. "We don't have enough pikmin to kill all of these creatures at once." I didn't know if the boundaries of the game affected these bulborbs, so I couldn't argue.

"I just have to try one last time," I said weakly. Against Olimar's wishes, I got to my feet and ran to the wind. Predictably, it affected me just as bad as I crashed into the wall a second time. This time I was completely unconscious, and apparently Olimar carried me to the ship and took off as the countdown began.

When I woke up, I was in the Dolphin, orbiting the planet, with Olimar sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of noodles. I walked to him slowly, my head thumping, my arms weak, my stomach grumbling. I opened a pack of noodles and spilled half on the table. I groaned and rested my head on the table.

"You're welcome," said Olimar quietly.

I lifted my head. "Oh right," I said. I suddenly realized Olimar had saved me. "Thanks for saving me. I probably don't deserve it."

"Well, you found my children's gifts, so I can't say that much," he smiled. "But what you did was incredibly risky and stupid, and we lost a lot of pikmin because of it."

"How many?" I wished I couldn't hear the answer.

* * *

"I noticed the onion saved a lot of pikmin, staying on the planet's surface longer than it should, and it was nearly eaten by the nocturnal beasts as a result," said Olimar. "But we lost thirty-three."

"Counting or not counting the one taken by the hand?"

"Counting."

"Fantastic."

"So where do you propose we go next?" Olimar asked, eating a spoonful of noodles.

I shook my head. Even though we were a few days ahead of schedule, at this point I would have gone to the Distant Spring and cleared that place out. I knew that the gust of wind had to have come from something similar to the Puffy Blowhogs, and that the Distant Spring was the only place to get them, but we had lost so much pikmin.

"And I'm sick of having cold soup!" I shouted. "I want some reason to go back to the ship, and sleeping isn't enough!"

"Warm noodles," Olimar chuckled. "Of all the things to want. Noodles."

"We need to resupply our pikmin, anyway," I reasoned. "We have sub-100 pikmin of each type? We'll spend the next day at the Impact Site. We'll get more pikmin and that ship part that cooks noodles."

"I really wish you would tell me how you knew this," Olimar sighed. "Jason, I can't force you, but after what happened today. You nearly lost your life."

"I don't know what happened, Olimar. Even if I explained… I've never seen something like that before. Something so powerful. The only thing that comes close is the, uh, creatures in another land, ones that can shoot wind to knock us down. But never so powerful, never so frightening, and never invisible."

"Should we go to the other land instead, to take down that threat and give us access to that last ship part. Unless it's the UV Lamp or Massage Machine, or even my Secret Safe."

"No, no, it's a necessary part, Olimar, we need to get it. We have 13 days, we can get that at any time. I want noodles."

"If you insist, Jason," Olimar conceded. We went back to our meals in silence.

* * *

Day eight…

We landed at the Impact Site. We weren't in a hurry today; we had plenty of time to get everything we needed and more. We got out 33 of each type of pikmin and worked on gathering every pellet in the area. We picked the place clean within a third of the day, and that wasn't including the second level or the pool. We solved the easy puzzle: use bomb rocks to blow up the bomb.

Then we came upon the Pearly Clamclamp. I instructed Olimar to throw three pikmin into the mouth, then whistle it as soon as it started to open. He did so the first time, saw how long it took before the clamclamp closed, and threw seven pikmin the next few times, waited until the very last minute, and killed it much quicker than I ever have.

"Oh," I said quietly. "Too cautious I suppose."

"Some risks have to be taken," said Olimar. "Now we have a beautiful pearl as a reward." A few red pikmin took that away, and we looked at the clamclamp that held the ship part. I never understood how it was so small inside the creature, and I still don't; it looked as bizarre close up as it ever had. Olimar used the same strategy, but it took longer because of the health of the creature and the strength of the blue pikmin. But he killed it, and out came the ship part.

"Yahoo!" I shouted gleefully. "Freshly-cooked noodles here we come! I can't wait to try them."

"Why are you focused on noodles suddenly?" Olimar asked.

"Just hungry, I guess," I couldn't explain. I think it was because of the frustration I was feeling: we had to waste two days just to get two ship parts, something we couldn't really afford to, having less days than parts remaining. I was going to die in less than two weeks. Yeah, probably because of frustration.

Olimar just shrugged and directed the pikmin to the ship part. We whistled our other pikmin and searched the pool for anything else. We saw nothing and walked into the tree trunk, where the pikmin were circling in place, as something had blocked their path.

"Was that there earlier?" I asked. Olimar shook his head. What was blocking the path was a stone statue, a rounded, unsymmetrical statue that lay unmoving on the ground. A mamuta. I whistled the pikmin carrying the treasure back.

"This isn't a threatening enemy," I explained. "It'll plant pikmin in the ground, but it flowers them, and it doesn't kill them. We just have to swarm and kill."

So we swarmed it, it shot up immediately and created shockwaves that threw several pikmin away. It then jumped into the air again, again, again, crushing no pikmin but causing the ground to shake. I was getting worried; it was starting to crack beneath us. I tried shouting to Olimar, but he had seen them long before I did and was trying to whistle the pikmin. Again, again, again. The bark was splintering, the ground jagged and difficult to traverse. Pikmin were scattered everywhere and that stupid Mamuta. Again, again, again.

The ground gave way; the entire tree shattered and caved in; everything inside fell several miles until the bottom of roots, something plantlike, green, mossy I would say, stopped us. Pikmin were scattered around the arena.

"Is this supposed to happen?" Olimar asked as we whistled the pikmin.

"No, no," I said, more calm than I felt. "We might be seeing a familiar, uh, face, though."

"The snake? You were screaming about it earlier."

"I'm probably too scared to be scared."

It wasn't the snake, by the way. It was something just as scary: the five-fingered hand. Only Olimar was right. It was just attached to a large body. The body of a giant Mamuta.


	14. Chapter 13: Father of the God of Pikmin

Chapter 13: The Father of the God of Pikmin

I like Mamutas, you know? They're shaped weird, but they're one of the few enemies who help you rather than harm you. Sure, they can take a bit of your health if they slap you, and they scared the crap out of my when I first encountered them, but they're no Smokey Progg. They are a fun little enemy to try to kill.

This giant one. This "king" as I'll call it. It scared me to death. One of the scariest moments of my life was when it first dug its way out of the tree and dirt collapsed behind it. It resembled a mamuta, about as tall as the game's Beady Long Legs, about as large too, but with a mamuta-esque shape. It was about three times as tall as it was wide, with its shoulders less pronounced, and its feet much larger; flat flipper-like things with claw-like toes at the end. Its eyes were as wide, blue, and empty as ever, but larger to fit its new body. Its arms were as long relative to its body as the game, with that strange red marking on its elbows, but its hands, as I mentioned before, were now five-fingered, forming a claw as it climbed from the wall. On its head was a red bump with a shining spike, which resembled a crown, and it now had a thin, toothless mouth which stretched into a wide, creepy, clown smile.

As it stepped into the hollowed trunk, it crushed a pikmin we had left, and it started rotating in an effort to search for us. I had to stifle my scream as it noticed the ship part, picked it up, stared at it for a while, and swallowed it. There was a small pile of dirt near us, so we hid behind that.

"We have to kill it now," said Olimar calmly, while I tried calming myself down. "Do you see a way out?" I didn't respond. "Jason? Are you okay? Do you need a rest?"

I was shocked. "That thing just tunneled out of the wall and took our ship part and you're asking if I need to rest?"

"We have plenty of the day remaining, and it can't see us," said Olimar. "There isn't a need for hurry; just tell me when you're ready."

"What if it finds us before I'm ready?" I hissed.

Olimar looked at it. "It's standing in place, not moving. Still unmoving." A few moments pause. "Still unmoving." A few more. "Still-"

"I get it!" I grumbled. I composed myself, breathing deeply and thinking of anything but the creature a few feet from us. After I felt calm and prepared, I said, "I'm ready."

Olimar whistled the pikmin – of which, I forgot to mention, we had seventy-six – and walked from our hiding spot. The King didn't move, didn't even react to us. It stared straight ahead at the wall. I looked all around the trunk and didn't see anything of interest. We spent a few minutes cautiously moving close to it, even right next to it, nearly touching it, and it didn't move.

"Should we attack it?" I asked. "I kind of like it; it isn't trying to kill us."

"It has one of my ship parts," said Olimar. "We have to get it out of its stomach, and I don't want to be swallowed again."

He threw a pikmin and threw it onto the King. The pikmin attached and started whacking at the beast, but its health didn't go down and it remained motionless. Olimar threw all of our remaining pikmin at it, and it never moved.

I groaned. "Well, now what?"

"Its skin is too thick," Olimar said, feeling it, knocking it with its finger. "As hard as stone."

"Fantastic. We can't kill it. Now what?"

"Be thankful the beast isn't hostile," said Olimar. "We have time to survey the area and come up with a pl- There it is!" He pointed excitedly at a pile of bomb rocks near the young mamuta's corpse.

He walked over to them and looked straight up. "These didn't come from the box," he said. "These were here before."

I realized what his plan was. "These were here for a reason. How much are there?"

"Fifteen," he said quickly. "We have to conserve them. Two should be tests: the outside and inside. Somehow we have to get the bomb rock to detonate in its stomach. And we need to throw one at him. Whichever does more damage, we go with, no matter how difficult." He counted our yellows. "Thirty. That'll be enough. We don't know its pattern of attack, Jason, so we have to be cautious. Do not use any of our yellows at first. We have to figure out when we have an opening."

I was struggling to keep up. "Right. Uh, so should we wake it up?"

He nodded. "There's no way it will do so unless we detonate a bomb rock at its feet. Or throw it, whichever the pikmin decide." He led one yellow to the bomb rock, allowed it to pick it up, and threw it at the King's foot. The pikmin looked at the creature, put the bomb rock in its leaf, swung its whole body around and threw it high into the air so that it landed in the King's eye. It exploded on impact, taking out an eighth of its HP and toppling the creature. It landed against the opposite wall, being too tall to fall to the ground, and began to move once more.

"Now we analyze its attacks," said Olimar. "Distract it, Jason!" He called as he sheparded the pikmin away.

"Sure," I grumbled as the King picked itself up. "It's always me." I braced myself for the slightest movement and quickly dove to the side as the King rubbed dust off its shoulder. I imitated its motion before it struck. It saw me as soon as it began its search and slammed down with one of its hands. I managed to dive aside, and it scooped up the ground and crushed it, letting it seep down its fingers.

"It has a slam attack, Olimar!" I shouted after it had done the attack again. My leg had almost been trapped in the dirt, but I managed to free it before the mamuta closed its fist. "What now?"

"Get farther back," said Olimar from the safety of his mound. (Yeah, I'm bitter. You try facing a giant monster by yourself. I know what he was planning, but it doesn't make my sacrifice any less terrifying.) "Let it come to you!"

And so I stepped out of its reach – I think, I had no idea how long its arms were – and it waddled towards me. Very slowly. This gave me an idea, and I charged right underneath it, right by its clawed toes. It was too heavy. That was its fatal flaw, and when I announced it to Olimar he responded:

"Of course. A creature made of such dense material would obviously sacrifice speed for power, Jason. Good thinking."

I sensed the sarcasm. "Yeah, well screw you," I muttered. The mamuta tried to kick with one of its feet, but its foot only moved a few inches and it started to lose its balance. It pressed against the wall, sending splinters scattering, to keep itself from collapsing. It pushed itself upright and searched the ground, not realizing I hadn't moved.

Olimar threw a blue pikmin into the open to see what it would do. The mamuta noticed, flinching and staring directly at it unmoving, and then it quickly swiped across the ground with both of its hands, clapping the pikmin but not killing it, lifting it to its mouth and swallowing it greedily. It then grinned toothlessly and went back to its unmoving form.

After a few minutes, I walked out from under it. The sky was turning orange. "It's getting very late," I said. "Do we have enough information to attack it?"

"Not even close," said Olimar. "We don't know what it will do when its life is truly threatened, or what it will do if its environment changes. But we have to defeat it quickly, so we'll have to hope we defeat it quickly enough so that those possibilities don't occur."

"And you're a deliveryman?" I asked, not believing my ears. "You're more prepared for this than I'd have thought."

Olimar looked at the sky, which had turned to a light shade of purple. "Later, Jason, later."

He threw three yellow pikmin at the mamuta, and in a simultaneous motion they threw their bomb rocks into the mamuta's eye. Half of its HP had gone. It was sent flying backward by the blast, lifting off of its claws and crashing into the wall. The arena nearly collapsed. It shook like an earthquake. Olimar and I couldn't hold our footing and fell. Many pikmin followed us to the ground. The king then dropped to the ground, creating more shockwaves that sent the rest of our pikmin to the ground. It landed on its feet, shaking itself off, staring with its wide, blue eyes as if nothing had happened.

We got to our feet, whistled the pikmin to speed their recovery up, and ran to the mound of dirt. The sky was darkening. "I don't think we'll make it," I whispered, even though the mamuta didn't have ears.

"Unfortunate," said Olimar. "Let's hope the nocturnal creatures don't decide to venture down this trunk."

"Or dig through the wall," I said, thinking of a certain reptile. "Let's also hope this thing doesn't get more ferocious at night."

"Agreed," said Olimar, getting to his feet. "Well, Jason, you risked your life already. Now it's my turn." Before I could stop him, he ran out into the open. The King spotted him and slammed its fist – yes, it now made a fist – down so quickly that I couldn't believe Olimar survived. I shouted his name, but when the dust cleared Olimar motioned for me to keep silent.

"It gets faster," I stated to the pikmin next to me. Olimar moved back, creating enough of a distance to "activate" the King's second move. It swiped the floor with both arms, slamming them together just before Olimar. Again, much faster than earlier. Olimar then ran underneath the King. The mamuta didn't even react to Olimar. It didn't try to shake him away or kick him or turn to face him. It just stood in its statue-esque pose.

"Do I throw the pikmin?" I called.

Olimar nodded. "We might as well take our opportunity."

So, I whistled four yellow pikmin carrying bomb rocks, walked out from the mound, and threw them at the mamuta's feet. My strength had evolved to the point that yellow pikmin were now a normal pikmin's height, thank you for asking. Anyway, the yellow pikmin wound up and threw the bomb rocks at the mamuta, and they were all blocked by the mamuta's fist. The King blocked its eye and the bomb rocks exploded, doing a fair bit of damage, but not nearly as much as they could. The yellow pikmin were then quickly crushed before I could call them back, and the King started to stomp.

It stomped in a rapid, rhythmic pattern, moving slightly to the side as it stomped. Olimar managed to escape and ran to the mound, breathing heavily.

"Seven bomb rocks left," Olimar counted loudly over the stomping. "Only a fourth of its HP remains. We'll sedate it again, then we throw all of our pikmin at it. We'll take it down as quickly as possible."

"And then what?" I asked. "We can't escape, and even if we did it'd be night."

"I'm well aware of that fact," shouted Olimar. "I'm also aware that my ship and the onions could be destroyed by the creatures, as there's no way for them to lift off."

"I'm sure the onions are flying perfectly safe in the sky," I shouted. "It's the ship we have to worry about."

The stomping had ceased; the mamuta had stilled. "Again, we'll worry about it when we escape." Olimar said. We got together the seven yellow pikmin and threw them at the mamuta's feet. In one motion, they threw the bomb rock at the King's head, and though the King shielded itself from every bomb, there was just enough power to chip away its final health. It fell forward, crushing the seven brave pikmin and nearly crushing the rest of us.

The ship part, the yellow spring with yellow rods on its head, was spat out just before it fell. It slid forward and landed behind us. The dust cleared, and the stone creature lay before us. Just for giggles, I let a pikmin try to carry it, and the fraction 1/10000 appeared over its head.

"Unbelievable," I muttered. Olimar walked over to me. "We did it, Olimar, we killed the hand."

"It is a great victory," Olimar replied. "Now we have to focus on the wind and the sn-"

A loud hissing sound echoed through the trunk. We looked around anxiously before seeing the snake's shining brown head in the wall, staring at us, its thin eyes glaring and its forked tongue poking out to smell us. It disappeared for a few seconds, and then burst through the wall, sailing high above our heads, and tunneling through the other side. Its gigantic, slender body, dark brown above with black spots spread throughout, tanned yellow underneath, soared above, allowing us to grasp just how ferocious the creature was. As it thinned out, I realized what it was doing:

"It's taunting us," I gasped. My legs were growing weak.

"Well, Jason," said Olimar with equal fear. "Your snake is real."


	15. Chapter 14: History

Chapter 14: History

Day nine…

In none of my playthroughs did I ever spend more than two days in the Impact Site. Even then I never beat 20 days. Now, when I had barely ten days left, I was forced to waste an extra day in the easiest of easy levels. And we were trapped; no geyser to appear like last time. We couldn't climb out with the ship part, and we couldn't abandon it because it was required to beat the game.

I fainted after the snake disappeared. When I woke up, the sky was brightening, and Olimar was resting beside me. Our pikmin were lounging about, many of them resting, all of them in a tight ball. I had guessed they were protecting each other, looking out for one another until the nocturnal creatures fell asleep.

I shook Olimar until he woke up. He blinked in a daze before his eyes found me. "Hello, Jason, ready for a new day?"

"We need to consider our options," I said.

"Of course," he said, pressing a button on his suit that sprayed water in his face. He blinked the water away and sat up, wide awake. "We have to escape this tree and we have to save our ship part."

"The only way I see is to climb," I said.

"We wouldn't be able to bring the ship part," Olimar replied.

"Couldn't you lift your ship off and drive it down here. We could suck the ship part up and land on the surface."

"I could do it," Olimar said. "But we don't have much fuel. We barely have enough for thirty days. You'd consider wasting it?"

I pointed at the meter on my chest, indicating I had less than eleven days left. "Unless you're going to carry on after I die, I'm sure we'll have plenty of fuel to spare."

"I'm sorry," Olimar said. "I forgot."

"It's a good plan?"

"It's a good plan. Can you climb?"

"As good as any kid my age."

"Is that good?"

"It's horrible."

"Would you like to rest while I climb?"

"I was joking," I said. "I'll climb."

Olimar didn't smile, and neither did I. It wasn't the time to joke. Even if Olimar didn't know how difficult it was to get his ship parts, he knew that we were running out of time. What we did have time for, however, was an interrogation. I felt like it was Olimar's turn to be on the receiving end of the discomfort.

We started to climb, using the splintered wood as our handles. We didn't have any equipment, so if we fell, there was nothing to stop us. I didn't want to think about that, so I decided now was the time to distract myself.

"Yesterday, I asked if you were a deliveryman, and you told me to talk about it later," I said.

"I remember that," Olimar grunted. He was already far ahead of me. He slowed down to speak. "I told you about Hocotate. It's an awful place, its economy is in shambles. I wouldn't be surprised if junk would be worth hundreds of pokos, my currency."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I wouldn't be surprised either."

"There aren't many jobs as a result," continued Olimar. "Being a deliveryman is a boring, yet dangerous job, and very few people are willing to do it. I went to college, wanting to become a biologist or a botanist, and got a job as a deliveryman because there were already too many scientists on the planet. Ergo: more than three."

"Certainly you could replace one of them, right? You being so intelligent?"

"Thank you for the compliment, but that isn't how it works: unless one of them dies, and believe me, that won't happen anytime soon, they're the only ones safe inside a radiation-proof building while the rest of us slave away, I'm stuck as a deliveryman."

"Radiation?"

"Hocotate was beautiful, so I was told. I've heard of other races having similar fates millennia ago. Entire ecosystems destroyed because the most powerful species on the planet got too power-hungry and decided to destroy the place for no reason. Generations ago, that was the fate of Hocotate. The majority of citizens managed to survive, but major populations were wiped out, and the resulting radiation burnt the planet. Radiation lingers across Hocotate's atmosphere, causing shorter lifespans for those in labor. Those lucky enough to afford radiation-proof houses, such as myself and the well-paid scientists, live long lives. Anyone else has half the estimated lifespan."

"Other races…" I whispered. "Uh, that sounds horrible. I'm sorry."

Olimar had come to a complete stop, allowing me to catch up to him. "In my galaxy, Hocotate is one of the lucky planets; there are many that were blown to pieces because of my ancestors' war. We have to live with that guilt forever. Entire races disappearing in a blink of an eye."

"Why haven't you left before if you can't live with the guilt?"

"I stay as far away from Hocotate as I can," Olimar said. "I'm a deliveryman for several reasons. There are some content to ignore the past. I can't. I can't live with it. I have to escape it. Coming here to this harsh planet has been one of the best things to ever happen to me, Jason. I feel so free here. Fighting for my life is thrilling, fantastic. It requires the brains and the brawn that I possess, and I can learn so much from being here."

He looked at the pikmin. "If I could convince my wife and children to leave Hocotate and come here to this pikmin planet, I would." He looked at me, unbelievingly. "I've never spoken about this before."

I couldn't think of anything to say. Nothing witty, nothing clever, nothing compassionate. I was speechless; I had never dreamed Hocotate would be such a place, never imagined the brief desert in the second game could explain so much, never assumed that the man who clinged to the wall beside me was filled with such regret, such hatred. He was spilling his heart and soul to me, but I had nothing to say.

This is why I don't think I was dreaming. I'm not clever enough to think of such a thing. I could never, not in ten thousand millennia, think of Hocotate like that, unless Nintendo told us directly in the third game. I'd always seen Olimar as a hero – and I still do, don't think otherwise – but never conflicted. I'm too stupid to come up with a story like that. I don't know how, but after Olimar told me his story, I'm convinced that I was really in the game, talking to Olimar in person. That lightning, the way I held my hand, it made something click in the universe, and I think I was teleported, maybe traveled backward or forward in time, right to the beginning of Pikmin.

I broke off into that tangent because this is where the story changes. I had nothing to say to Olimar, but before I could say anything, the wall began to rumble. To our left, splinters were jutting out as something started to push its way through. Popping out as ferocious as ever, with its gleaming eyes and sharp, long fangs, was the snake's head. The snake looked at us, seemed to blink in surprise, inching its head back, and I was sure we were going to die.

"If it gets ready to strike," said Olimar calmly. "Let go."

I nodded, my entire body trembling. This is it, I thought, after Olimar tells me his life story, we were going to die. The entire universe was going to explode, and Pikmin 2 will never happen. Instead of attacking us, however, the snake turned to the arena and saw a glittering gold rod on top of a bright green shining coil. It pulled its head back into the wall, and then dove at the ship part, mouth wide open, swallowing it and diving into the ground. The resulting shockwave caused me to lose my grip, and I crashed to the ground.

"My Positron Generator!" Olimar shouted from his perch.

I blinked the stars out of my eyes as I felt another rumbling. "It's coming back!" I shouted, before a geyser of water burst from the hole. I gasped and heard Olimar drop to the ground.

"We can escape," I said. I looked at Olimar, but he was staring sadly at the hole. "Olimar?"

"We lost the ship part," he muttered. "It swallowed it."

"Oh no," I muttered. We couldn't follow it because of the water, so we had to either let it attack us again, which I never wanted to happen, or die, because the ship couldn't lift off without it. "We'll, uh, think about it tonight, right?"

Olimar shook his head. "I don't know anymore. We can't escape the planet's atmosphere without the ship part." He looked at me, and although I knew we couldn't have done anything to stop it, I felt incredibly sad and guilty. "I'm sorry, Jason. We have to find it. I know you don't want to fight it, but it's either that or death."

I dropped my gaze. "It'll end the same way, then."

* * *

An hour later, we were on the Dolphin, having ridden the geyser out of the trunk, collected our pikmin, scoured the area for leftover pellets, and escaped at sunset. I glanced out the window and saw the giant hole that used to be the level, and I thought I saw a long, thin creature in the shadows. We had collected very few pikmin today. Less than the first day. It was a complete waste of time.

I had been thinking about our options and had made my decision. "Olimar," I said, turning away from the window. "Let's go to the Distant Spring. There, we'll probably find the source of the wind, and then we'll clear out the Forest of Hope."

"You don't want to search for your snake?"

"I have a feeling that it'll come to us. In the Forest of Hope, guarding the last ship part, are snake-bird creatures. If the snake lives anywhere, it lives with them."

"Tell me about the Distant Spring," Olimar said. "If you indeed know about it."

I knew the level designs for every other area has remained the same; it was the enemies that had changed, so I told him the basic design of the level. I mentioned none of the puzzles nor the enemies, but I warned him that this level had ten ship parts, so we had to move fast. I also mentioned the Puffy Blowhog, because that was my prediction for the source of the gust of wind. Based upon hearing its description, Olimar agreed.

"Are you certain there are no other creatures that blow air?" Olimar asked.

"There is another, but it's identical to the Puffy, so if we do encounter it it won't be a problem. We defeat them the same way."

Olimar sighed. "Jason, I wish you would tell me how you knew this."

I thought a while about my answer. Before today, I would have told him about his life being a game and nothing more. Now, I'm not so sure; I was considering telling him that Pikmin was just a controllable documentary about his adventure, but then time travel would be questioned. So I decided to hold off on telling him.

"If we survive this planet, I'll tell you. Is that fair enough?"

"No, it isn't, but it's the best I'll be offered." And off we flew, knowing realizing that there was a significant chance of me never being able to explain my story. And, of course, the Snake.


	16. Chapter 15: Dangerous Waters

Chapter 15: Dangerous Waters

Needless to say, morale was low in our adventure. A required ship part had been taken by the scariest creature I had ever seen on the planet. Yes, worse than the Beady Long Legs. By that point, I can honestly say the BLL was much less intimidating. So all we had to rely on was luck – good or bad we didn't know – to find the snake again.

Things weren't helped by the fact that everything I knew about the Distant Spring was now wrong.

Day 10…

Olimar landed in the strange triangle of circles, but before even that happened I noticed a change. As I stepped out of the rocket, I noticed another. The hollowed logs in the center of the map that held the second Armored Cannon Beetle had been replaced with a giant, unclimbable mountain. And our base was surrounded by a circle of a dozen sleeping bulbears.

Olimar jumped out of the ship and noticed the black and red ring of death. "You didn't mention this yesterday." He said calmly. He spun in place to count the bulbears and saw the mountain. "Or that."

I was panicking. I had enough trouble trying to swarm these guys in the first game. I was sure that if I tried that, they'd all wake up. I told this to Olimar.

"It would be probable," he agreed. I think. "Can they swim?"

I didn't honestly know. In the games, they could, but the games had no water physics: Olimar walked on water, no matter how deep. But in "real life"…

"Should we try it?" I asked.

"If we try to face all twelve of these beasts, we'd lose a lot of pikmin, if not die. We have to try."

"Maybe they'll fight with each other over their food," I suggested as a joke.

"Another probability. Let's hope that happens if they don't drown, shall we?" Olimar then ran at the bulbears, forcing me to follow. He squeezed through a small gap underneath a bulbear's mouth, and as I followed him, even through the filtered suit, I could smell the creature's putrid breath. Its eyes shot open and its body stiffened as we brushed against it. As it got to its feet, the one behind it woke up, and the domino effect continued until all were on their feet and chasing us.

We neared the water, the giant pool that held the key-like machine, the one that I only then realized was incredibly, incredibly deep. Not that it mattered in the game, but if my theory was accurate, there was a great chance of us drowning. Or, worse, there actually being something in the water. Olimar jumped into the water before I could tell him, and he confirmed that the game's physics did not apply.

"Fantastic," I muttered as I followed him into the lake. We swam into the center, myself looking down to see how deep and dark it was (it was), and watched the bulbears as they entered. Showing no fear, no awareness of the ocean beneath, they stormed into the water, sending giant waves hurtling towards us. We were able to ride the wave, and we watched the bulbears sink deeper in the water as they swam towards us, their tiny legs unable to support their giant bodies, disappearing beneath the water as they got too deep, the last bubbles popping on the surface, and after a few minutes, silence.

We hadn't moved in a while, but I was gasping for breath. It wasn't even hard to wade. But what I had just seen… "Brutal," I said. "That was one of the worst…"

Olimar patted me on the shoulder, making me jump in surprise. "Sorry. But if you want to go back to the ship, you're welcome to."

I shook my head. "I'll live. We lived." I pointed to the ship part on the ledge. "I know how to get that."

As we swam back to shore, a large cylindrical object burst out of the water, causing both of us to shout in surprise. The ship part floated on the surface, peacefully bobbing as its tip blinked various colors.

"Is that one of my ship parts?" Olimar asked. He swam to it. "It must have been vomited out by one of the creatures as it drowned."

"Lovely," I muttered. "I'll collect this, and you collect the nearby ship part." I explained the puzzle, and we got out one hundred blues. We spilt them amongst ourselves and split up. I walked my group to the pond, "c-sticked" them into the water and watched as they swam to the ship part and started pulling it to shore. (By the way, I think I've mentioned that physics doesn't apply, right? The ship part was just as heavy in water as it is on land.) After it reached shore, the pikmin lifted it above their heads and carried it to the ship. I saw Olimar swimming behind his pikmin in the distance; he had successfully collected the ship part.

I looked at the mountain, and a sudden thought crossed my mind: the second armored cannon beetle was gone. There were no more beetles in the second game. As if my morale couldn't have dropped any more, I was struck with a sickening idea: I had just killed off the last of a species; there were larva still alive that I had orphaned.

I voiced my thoughts to Olimar as he returned to shore. "A mere child," he said with pity. He patted me on the shoulder. "I am serious, Jason, if you feel you aren't able to continue, please rest. I can handle myself alone."

I was feeling weak. I wanted to go back to the ship, back home, back to safety and security. As the ship collected the ship part, I dropped to my knees. I didn't want to break down in front of Olimar, one of my heroes, but I couldn't help myself. Tears dropped from my eyes, splattering the inside of the helmet, which was immediately evaporated. I thought of all of the creatures we killed, how many we had to kill in the future. I didn't think I could handle it. And to make matters worse, absolutely horrible, Olimar started to comfort me like I was a child.

I didn't stop him. I was wallowing in my own regret, embarrassed beyond belief. I was ashamed about what I'd done, completely ignoring what Olimar constantly told me: "It was for our survival, Jason, it was them or us, and it had to be them. You need to rest. This has been too much for a child."

"I'm not a child," I stated with venom. "I-I c-can handle myself. I don't need to be babied."

Olimar kneeled to be at my level. "You've helped me far more than I could have imagined when we first met. We're so close to rescuing ourselves, and it's thanks to you. I couldn't think of you as anything less than my equal partner. But the strain has finally set in, seeded in your mind. I know you can handle yourself, but right now you need to rest, to relax. It's for your own safety."

"No, no, no," I said, shaking my head madly. "Not after yesterday, not now. I know where the ship parts are, and I can help you get them. I can handle myself!" I got to my feet. "Come on, Olimar-" I took a deep breath. "-there's a ship part nearby, on that island. We'll build a bridge. Uh, we'll need blues." I looked at Olimar, who was kneeling skeptically. "Olimar?"

Olimar got to his feet, but looked at me the same. I pointed at the island. "There are bomb rocks as well. We can use them to blow up that wall." I pointed at the wall. I smiled reassuringly. "I feel fine, Olimar, really." A lie, but I had embarrassed myself enough with my crying. I ignored his continued staring and walked toward the pool when I noticed something bobbing in the water.

"Hey, it's that ship part from the Impact Site!" I shouted with joy, gleefully sprinted toward the water.

Now, you have to hear me out: I'm going to explain exactly why I just did this. I'm an idiot. I completely forgot – because of my temper tantrum and, admittedly, pathetic attempts at showing maturity – that this place was a plant-filled Hell. I now know that Olimar was completely right, and I mean completely right. Extinction be darned. But, I was too preoccupied with showing Olimar my "strength" and didn't realize the freaking obvious trap.

Anyway, Olimar followed me into the water, trying to tell me to stop and think, but I frantically swam to the ship part. I reached it and "c-sticked" the pikmin I had whistled. I didn't notice the bubbles popping at my side, and only when Olimar shouted at me, pulling me away from the ship part, did I notice anything unusual. Olimar had the sense to whistle all pikmin carrying the ship part, and as we distanced ourselves from the ship part, I realized why.

As if in slow motion, I saw the water beneath the ship part dip a small amount, and then burst outward as the snake rocketed out of the water, its mouth wide open, swallowing the ship part and much of the water around it, including several pikmin that weren't quick enough. The snake flipped in the air and disappeared into the deep water, and I swam faster than I could to shore. I threw myself into the safety of the triangle, praying the snake couldn't follow. Olimar and the pikmin followed me, and all of us fell flat on the ground, breathing heavily.

"It followed us," were my first gasped words. "It followed us, and it tried to trap us."

"Cunning, fast, and powerful," Olimar noted. He was already recovering. "What a magnificent, deadly creature."

"Sure, Olimar, admire the thing that tried to kill us," I spat. "Maybe you could invite it to your house later for a cup of freaking tea!"

"Think before you speak, Jason, please. You nearly died because you didn't think."

"How was I supposed to know the snake was waiting for me?"

"Because we saw the snake swallow that ship part yesterday."

"It could have died."

"Then another larger creature could have been waiting."

The thought terrified me. "Please don't say that. I just… let's not go into the water. Somehow – I don't know how, because it isn't supposed to – it's able to breathe in water."

"What do you mean 'it isn't supposed to'? You know of creatures like this, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know about snakes. So?" Then I realized what he meant. "Olimar, we just got out of danger. Don't start this. I'll tell you when we escape."

"If a creature that holds a vital ship part is intelligent enough to set a trap for us, then there is a small chance of us escaping, Jason."

"I already have one beast after me, Olimar, don't make it two!"

"I'm not your enemy. But past events have proven that you're as incorrect as much as you're correct. If you're incorrect, and it turns out to be fatal, we're going to die here." He paused. "And you said 'creatures'. How many of those snakes are out there?"

"I honestly don't know anymore. Nothing makes sense. What I would have told you when we first met, would now be a complete lie. I can't explain it, alright? Give me some time to think about it."

"How many ship parts are in the water?"

"Two in the really deep water. Snake shouldn't be able to reach the shallow water without us seeing it."

"Where's the nearest ship part?"

"You think you can trust me?"

Olimar sighed. "I'm sorry. We've both been through a lot these past days. Yes, I can trust you."

I pointed at the metal wall. "Ship part's over there." I pointed to the nearby sleeping bulbear. "Ship part's near there. The bomb rocks are over there too."

"Then we avoid the deep water for as long as possible. We'll destroy the wall today and get the nearest ship parts. We have half the day remaining." Olimar whistled the pikmin and started walking away. "Will we need any other pikmin?"

"No, we'll be fine with blues." I hesitated. "Olimar?"

"Hmm?" He stopped.

"I'm sorry too."


	17. Chapter 16: Regret

Chapter 16: Regret

The Armored Cannon Beetle is one of my favorite enemies in the original game. Top five easy. It doesn't have a disgusting design like the Beady Long Legs and it isn't that difficult, admittedly, than, well, the Beady Long Legs. After I apologized, I realized something: there were no more Armored Cannon Beetles left. Enemies don't respawn. They aren't in the second game. This was the first time I wondered whether we just caused the extinction of a species.

And then I started to think of other enemies – The Elephant or the King Mamuta – which aren't technically in either of the games. Sure, each time they attacked us first, but was it worth it? Are they the monsters? Weren't we invading their territory, trying to get objects to help ourselves?

"Olimar," I whispered. We were nearing the bulborb. "Have you thought about what we've done here? The damage we've caused?"

"It's necessary for survival, isn't it, Jason?" Olimar replied. "If we didn't kill the creatures that attacked us, we'd be dead."

"What if we just left them alone?"

"Then we'd never be able to lift off. And we'd be dead." Olimar said, and then his expression softened. "Are you really okay? What are you thinking?"

"When we crashed here, we disassembled the natural order of life, didn't we? Pikmin at the bottom. And now we've killed two goliaths and several other menacing creatures. What if they're extinct, because of us."

"If there was only one of them in existence before we came, then it's unlikely that they would be able to survive long." Olimar chuckled. "I hope I don't have to explain how things are born. You should be old enough. But we didn't do anything that nature wouldn't have done in due time. We sped up the process."

"Then why isn't murder okay? It's speeding up the process."

"Jason, I fail to understand why you're explaining this to me. Our time is running short."

"I'm just questioning whether we're right."

"This is a matter of survival, Jason. There is no right or wrong. We must survive! We must escape!"

"Why?"

Olimar turned toward the Bulbear. "To get you to safety." And he swarmed the creature with all of our blue pikmin. The creature woke up and emitted a loud, painful yell as the pikmin whacked it with their leaves. The creature stumbled around, the weight of the pikmin too much for it. It tried shaking with all of its remaining strength, but Olimar whistled those that had fallen off and threw them back on. The bulbear stood no chance. Within seconds the once sleeping creature lay dead. And Olimar let the pikmin carry its body away.

I shook my head. I knew my point had been proven, but I didn't know why I had that point in the first place. He was right: we had to survive. But was it worth it? The whole planet might be in jeopardy. But as long as we got out, all of the sacrifices were justified. Right?

Anyway, I ignored the barbaric murder and told Olimar where the next ship part was. He was to take all of the blues and build the simple puzzle of two bridges connecting. I warned him that there might be shearwigs to take care of. I would use switch the other ten pikmin to yellows and use the bomb rocks to destroy the wall. Then, we would take care of the other puzzles.

I accomplished my mission with little hassle. The yellow pikmin found several bomb rocks, enough to blow down the wall. This was good: we wouldn't have to cross the deep water anytime soon. There were a few bomb rocks remaining, so I used them on the other, darker wall, which knocked it down a level. Then I switched the yellows back into blues, as we wouldn't need them at all the rest of the day, and walked back to the bridges.

I had spent a lot of time on that tedious puzzle. I expected Olimar to be done with his job well before I arrived. I passed no ship part and had heard nothing of him since we split up. The day was nearing its end. Maybe eight minutes left. I was panicking. I ran into the pond and was met with a confusing sight.

First, an explanation, as I know this a strange tone shift from my rant a few seconds ago. But I can't be "deep" all day, now can I? After all, it's not everyday you see Olimar trapped inside a- Sorry: explanation.

There are three optional bosses in the Pikmin games: The smoky progg, the mamuta, and a blob of water known as a Goolix. Normally it swallows pikmin and drowns anything that isn't blue. I know from experience. Never before have I seen it swallow Olimar. And there's the confusion: Olimar was looking rather bored, standing inside the Goolix with his arms crossed. He didn't look like he was in pain, but he couldn't escape.

"Olimar," I called. Then, I was scared. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I got the bridges fixed." He pointed at the bridges, which had indeed been built. The pikmin were standing idly on them, looking at the Goolix with fascination. Several shearwig bodies littered the pool. The ship part was in its original place. "This thing formed from the water and swallowed me as soon as the pikmin finished the bridge. I can't escape. And my whistle can't permeate this watery shell."

"No worries," I said. I knew how to beat this: throw everything at the larger popcorn-like ball. I whistled the pikmin, getting an odd number of 98, and threw a single pikmin at the Goolix. On the hit, the creature forced both of its balls together and the resulting force threw Olimar out of it and into the pool. I rushed to Olimar and checked to see if he was okay. He got up quickly.

"Now what do we do?" I asked. I was sticking to my earlier philosophy. The creature didn't harm Olimar. Olimar had disturbed it. We shouldn't kill it. "We shouldn't kill it. We should just get the ship part and leave."

Olimar looked at me in exasperation. "Jason, you're changing. But at the wrong time. We barely have half the ship parts, and you have less than ten days with that suit."

"It isn't hurting us. It isn't in our way. The pikmin will use the bridge to transport the ship part. We'll leave it alone."

Olimar sighed. "Fine, Jason. But if it captures one of us or the ship part, we kill it."

I nodded. I hoped the Goolix would understand. Yes, it's odd that the one creature I pity is the creature with no visible brain or sense of reason, but its innocence is what drove me to ask. And my plead would not go unanswered. As if it heard us, when we traveled across the bridge, it left us alone, floating in its pool and silently watching. The pikmin carried the ship part away, and we parted ways. The day was nearing its end. I told Olimar we could do one last puzzle, possibly clearing the way, before we came back.

"There are a few walls down that river. We'll be able to break them down, and then we'll gather the treasures tomorrow."

"Are there any other of those water creatures I should know about?" Olimar asked.

"I didn't even know that one would be there. I have no idea." I walked ahead before Olimar could respond. Scouting the river, I could see a yellow wollywog guarding the two nearby walls. While I was contemplating whether it was worth killing it, Olimar caught up to me, took a bunch of my pikmin, and swarmed it. It couldn't defend itself; like the bulbear, the pikmin were too heavy for it. It fell, and Olimar set to work on the wall.

He walked up to me. "We need to talk." The clock was beginning to count down. A giant 10 flashed in front of our helmets. The ship part was sucked into the ship. Only eleven left.

"What, Olimar? What could we possibly need to discuss now?"

"You."

"You don't trust me? I thought we went over this. Many times."

Nine.

"Your schizophrenic personality. Never once have you wanted to save one of these creatures. Now you fear even harming one, even if it threatens your life!"

"That isn't true. Nothing I wanted to avoid killing was threatening me. The yellow wollywog and the Goolix-"

Eight.

"The yellow wollywog and the Goolix? Are those your names?"

"Uh, sure?" I wasn't thinking. The wall had fallen one level.

Seven.

"Anyway, continue. Sorry for the interruption."

"Well, they weren't doing threatening me. They were standing in one spot, minding their own business. It was us who was threatening them. And we murdered them in cold blood."

Six.

"They would have attacked us," said Olimar.

"If we got too close. They were guarding their territory. They don't seek us out. You can't name five creatures we've faced that have actively seeked us out."

Five.

The wall's second layer had fallen. "Then what do you expect us to do, Jason? Do you not want to live? Whether you like this place and its creatures or not, whether you want to remain peaceful with them or kill them where they stand, you're going to die in ten days. Have you forgotten that?"

Four.

"I haven't forgotten, Olimar, I just don't want to be responsible for something so terrible as the extinction of an entire species."

"I have already explained this to you, Jason, why do you continue to ignore me?"

The wall's final layer fell. The ship part was available, but we had to reach the ship before night fell. I ignored Olimar's last remark not because of irony, but because we were behind. I could hear rumbling, and the deep water nearby was starting to churn. We sprinted to the rocket with pikmin in tow while the final three numbers counted down. As we reached the rocket, something large leaped out of the water with a terrific splash. I didn't dare turn around. I stumbled inside and Olimar took off. The onions followed us off the surface, but I could've sworn I saw a large hand try to grab us and barely miss.

* * *

A few minutes later, after we had eaten and rested, Olimar sat down on the side of my bed and spoke softly:

"Jason, you're worrying me. In more ways than one."

This is one night that I… that I regret. "Oh my god!" I groaned. I threw my pillow over my head, refusing to listen, although Olimar's soft, soothing voice seeped through.

"I hate to draw this conclusion, but I fear your teenage emotions, the constant switching from happiness to fear to anger at a moment's notice, is causing you more turmoil than you deserve. That, coupled with this Hellish planet, makes me believe this is too much of a strain."

"What makes you think you know me?" I spat. "You know nothing about me!"

"Then why should I continue trusting you? Why should I place my life on the line for someone who I can't trust, who I know nothing about."

"Because you need me to survive."

"Are you sure? Have I not proven myself capable in your eyes?"

"You don't have to impress me. I know too much about you."

"Do you hate m-"

I threw the pillow off. "Why do you treat me like this? Like I'm some sort of child you have to baby! You speak so softly, so calmly, after we were nearly eaten, crushed, and drowned!"

"Because you are acting like one, Jason," his voice grew louder and sterner. He stood up and glared at me. "And you are one. Must I point out the obvious? You are a child who clearly has no experience in surviving in harsh environments. Your only strength is your knowledge of this planet, which you have yet to explain fully, and which has been proven to be incorrect and, at times, near fatal. Do you believe you know everything? Do you think you know more than me?"

"Y-yes?" My voice. It pained me. It was so quiet and afraid.

"Then you are indeed a child. You are not invincible, Jason. We have nine days before you die. And I cannot have that on my conscience. We are getting off this planet alive, but to do that, you are going to have to grow up."

He was about to storm off, but he paused and sighed. "It isn't your fault, my friend. I don't blame you, nor hate you in the least." He left to pilot the ship, and I was left to cry.


	18. Chapter 17: Absolutely Abnormal

Chapter 17: Absolutely Abnormal

Day 11…

I spent the whole night thinking. As usual, Olimar was absolutely correct, but there was nothing I could do. I hated him for it, yet I feared what could happen if I got him upset. He could, at any point, leave me to die. And even though I knew he wouldn't do it, the fear silenced me. At the time, again, I regret, I could have said terrible things to him, said many lies and claimed to know the future, essentially sabotaging our efforts. For what, I asked myself? For a few seconds of pride before seeing Olimar either give up on our survival or abandon me to fend for myself. And who would the Pikmin choose? The brilliant and competent leader or a teenager who was useless.

So we exited the ship after a quiet meal. I told Olimar, admittedly quietly and nervously (after his outburst the previous night, I was quite sure that anything could anger him again), to get one hundred blue pikmin. We were to retrieve two relatively easy ship parts today. We wouldn't have to face any enemies unless we retrieved them very quickly.

We traveled down the same path leading to the Goolix, taking a right into the broken wall and reaching the fork which led to two walls and a river. The left wall was broken, thanks to our efforts the previous night. Olimar took forty pikmin and left to retrieve that ship part. The remaining sixty were to destroy the black wall, which I knew would take a while. I then decided to scout around to see how much had changed.

Thankfully, except for the giant mountain that replaced the second Armored Cannon Beetle's lair, the layout of the place was relatively similar. I checked to see if the Pilot's seat was in the same place, and indeed it was. I took a brief glance into the large lake (I did see dark water, and I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible) and saw in the distance the two puzzles that led to two of the ship parts.

Absolutely normal.

Olimar came out from the crevice alone. Behind him the pikmin were carrying the ship part, the one that looked like cogs on top of each other. We waited in silence for the pikmin to break down the wall. When they did, we ran into the small hollow tree trunk and swarmed the shearwigs that had popped out of the ground.

By the way, in my thinking I reasoned that our lives were worth sacrificing the lives of the insects, and that even if I resented the creatures' murders, Olimar wouldn't think twice. So I might as well accept it while we're together. It'd cause fewer problems and wouldn't get him angry.

After the shearwigs were dead, we led the pikmin to the pilot's seat. Instinctively, Olimar sat down on the seat before any pikmin could lift it up, and thus led to us waiting for Olimar to get off of the seat.

"So many fond memories," Olimar sighed. "This seat and I have been through a lot."

"I'm sure," I whispered. "Olimar. We need to get it to the ship."

He got up and nodded. "Sorry. Had to reminisce." We set the pikmin to carry the ship part. I made sure that they went the right way. And then I noticed something. Faint screams of pain.

"Olimar… are our pikmin numbers dropping?"

He looked at a reading inside his suit. "They… they are. What's going on?" Leaving the pikmin to carry the ship part, we sprinted toward camp. According to Olimar's numbers, we have lost thirty pikmin. Most of the ones which had carried the ship part. They hadn't made it to the ship. We never got an indication that we had captured it.

"Did the snake swallow this one too?" I muttered, and the thought nearly froze me. We turned the corner to see a puffy blowhog floating near camp. The one that was usually near camp when you first enter the Distant Spring. Only this one… this one was much larger. It was at least ten times the size of a regular blowhog, and it was colored red and black instead of its pleasant blue and purple. That wasn't the scary thing. In fact, knowing that that existed was comforting in that, if we killed it, we were sure to be able to access the final part in the Forest of Hope.

The scary thing was what the blowhog was blowing our pikmin toward. The reason why we had lost 30 pikmin so quickly. A giant sea monster was floating in the pool where the bulbears drowned, holding onto land with two webbed hands. The most noticeable thing about this monster was its eyes: bright blue, pupil-less, and empty, as if it had no soul. It had no snout, so instead of resembling a bulborb like many of the game's enemies, it resembled a… well… something sinister. What gave its origin away was its dark green, slimy, decaying skin. And only one enemy had that kind of skin. And that's what was frightening.

Before I describe that, though, I'll tell you what happened when we approached. First, the creature saw us and stared at us with its disturbing eyes. Then its enormous, albeit toothless, mouth stretched into a smile, and then it pushed off from the beach and flipped around, revealing a terrifying fact: the part of the gigantic creature that towered over us was only its head. It took five seconds for the creature to reveal its entire body and dive into the pool. It had two long, similarly webbed feet, and a small stump on its rear end.

When the monster left, the giant blowhog turned to face us. It was high above us, too high for blues to reach. We were too stunned to react, and as a result we were blasted by the blowhog. This was the creature from the Forest of Hope, the one that blasted me and my pikmin all across the level. And it did the same this time. I was sent flying away, and I crashed into the wall. I slipped into the shallow water, and nearby Olimar did the same. We landed where the Goolix was yesterday, and thankfully for us, it didn't reappear. Our pikmin had been scattered across the level, and I saw the blowhog float off into the distance.

"Olimar," I groaned. My head was spinning from the impact. I had taken damage, but the helmet hadn't cracked. "Are you okay?"

Olimar nodded out of the corner of my eye. "I see you were telling the truth about that wind." He got up slowly. "Do you know where it went?"

I shrugged. "I can only guess it went back to the Forest of Hope." I looked around. A few pikmin were lying nearby. Thankfully, we only had blue pikmin, so there was no danger of any of them drowning.

Avoiding getting eaten by a sea monster, though, I could not guarantee.

We checked the map of the region. Our pikmin had indeed been scattered all around the West side of the area. There was a large cluster carrying a ship part, just rounding the bend.

"That creature likes the deep water," said Olimar. "Avoid it if you can. If you find it: run. We'll have to fight it together, if we're forced to."

And we gathered our pikmin. Some that had been blown to the southernmost tip, we couldn't help. Those were in the deepest part of the level. Everything north from our location we gathered swiftly, and in total we retrieved around thirty. Thirty had been eaten by the sea monster, twenty were carrying the pilot's seat, and ten were in water too deep to risk venture. After collecting everything, we found the cog ship part leaning against the nearby metal wall, obviously blown there by the blowhog.

After that experience, the day had nearly ended. It took a while scouring the level looking for our pikmin, but there was something I had to know.

"Olimar," I said. "Do you see those small islands over there?" I pointed. He nodded. "I want to go down there."

"Jason, that leads to deep water. You shouldn't risk it."

"I have to know something. It'll help, trust me." I was lying. If it was as I feared, it'd make things much worse.

He sighed and said, "If you insist." We walked across the islands, making sure to avoid stepping in the water lest we alert the beast. The island path drew us closer to a circle of islands, and my fears were confirmed. As we reached the circle, I dropped to my knees.

Now, the backstory: There is an optional boss in Pikmin called the Smoky Progg. It's a small, larval froglike creature which emits poison that kills pikmin instantly. The progg has some of the highest health in the game, and it takes a long time and a lot of pikmin before it's killed. The kicker is how you find it. You choose whether you want to fight it, as it's in an egg when you first see it. That's right. An egg. A baby. A hatchling.

When I saw that skin, I knew that that creature had to be related to the smoky progg from the games. What I didn't know then, and I knew when I saw what was on the island, was that the monster was in fact the smoky progg. However, it isn't a hatchling. It was an adult. What we saw on the islands was the bottom of the egg, broken up with pieces floating around the islands.

I really, really have to emphasize this. You have to know the fear that I was feeling. The baby was strong. The adult was gigantic. Much larger than even the Emperor Bulblax. And I had no idea where it could be because technically it didn't exist. All I knew was that it could swim. But it had legs and arms, so it could jump on land if it wanted to. And it could swim, so half the level was off limits unless we wanted to fight the creature.

Another thing to note: there was no puffy blowhog, nor were there any water dumples. And not once have we seen yellow wollywogs or wogpoles in the water. That creature ruled the water. However, that thing also might have something we need.

"Olimar, I think that creature had a ship part," I said.

"Which one?"

"The green one. I think it ate a creature that originally had the ship part."

"I thought as much," Olimar sighed. "Life is cruel like that."

"I, uh, don't think we should return here tomorrow. I don't want to come back."

Olimar patted my shoulder reassuring. "Then where would you like to go?"

"Home." I half-chuckled. "Actually, the Forest of Hope sounds nice. We'll take down the last ship part there, now that we know what was the source of the wind."

"Are you sure it will be there?"

"I'm sure."

"Then I'll trust you." He looked at the sky. It was nearly night. "Let's go."

As we walked back to the ship, Olimar suddenly chuckled. "Look at the bright side, Jason, that creature must have eaten your dreaded Snake."

"Lovely," I muttered. "Now we only have one bloodthirsty monster that'd rather toy with us than fight us directly."

We reached the ship and lifted off the planet before the timer even began. Even though we left early, as we rose into the atmosphere, looking out the window, I could see a large shape emerging from the water and staring at us. Two bright blue spheres. And a hand that reached out to grab us.


	19. Chapter 18: Returning to Hope

Chapter 18: Returning to Hope

If we were playing the game, we would actually be doing very well. In only eleven days we got nineteen ship parts, and we had over one hundred of each pikmin. If everything was normal, we could beat the game in around 5 or 6 days, and that's if we took our time.

As I'm sure you've realized, as I know you aren't a complete idiot, this isn't the normal game. Pikmin Hard Mode, probably, is its more appropriate title. Or Pikmin "scare the crap out of Jason and make his life a living Hell". Hey, that's a good subtitle for Pikmin 3!

Anyway, that night I had terrible nightmares that kept me up. You may be surprised, but they weren't about the Beady Long Legs. I think I stopped caring about it around the time we spent the night in a tree trunk at the Impact Site. The nightmares were filled with bright blue eyes, and a smile that opened, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth, and then they got closer, until they were above me, and then they closed, and absolute darkness. Slime dripping onto my shoulders, and then the floor tilted upward, and then I started sliding. Nothing to grab on to. Falling. Endlessly.

As a result, I was incredibly tired when we ate our noodles (still cold, by the way). Olimar questioned what was wrong, but I, in my endless intelligence and maturity, thought it best not to mention anything.

"Nothing," I muttered. "Just thinking about what's, uh, coming up. I told you about the Burrowing Snagret, right?"

"You took the liberty of naming it, yes," Olimar said. "But I recall what you explained. Are yellow pikmin the only pikmin we should bring?"

"Ten blues. There's a box we can push that will be easier to move with blues. Other than that, just wait for it to surface, and then throw. And if we find the Puffy Blowhog, hopefully it will be low enough to reach with yellows."

We started to land. I was staring out the window when I saw a familiar red and black shape floating high above the Forest of Hope. I pointed it out to Olimar.

"It's too high for yellows to reach," he said. "What do you propose we do?"

"Crash into it," I said. "That'll knock it down. Possibly kill it."

"And risk damaging the _Dolphin_ even more?" Olimar gasped. "Do you want to set us back even further?"

"It's guarding the place," I said. "If we can't knock it down, we can't get that last ship part. It'll blow us away again."

"There's still time to go to another area, at least for today."

It stared at us as we passed it, descending to the planet surface. It watched us, noticing nothing else. And then it happened, something that will make me respect pikmin eternally: the red onion sped up ahead of the others and rammed right into the blowhog. The creature was sent out of the sky, hurtling toward the surface. The red onion, dented and missing part of its third leg, barely managed to control its descent before landing, but it landed hard. There was a hole in the onion, and pikmin were falling out of it and crashing into the surface, dying on impact with nothing to cushion their fall.

We followed the onion, and we jumped out of the ship to rescue those that had survived. Fifteen pikmin in total, but at least forty had fallen and died. The good news was that we still had two hundred. The bad news was that those pikmin had died a terrible death, but their sacrifices were not in vain. The blowhog crashed into the ground outside the landing site, and it lay in pain with a noticeable gasy in its side. It was bleeding.

"It's bleeding," I whispered. "Since when does anything bleed?"

"Now's our chance, Jason," Olimar said quickly. "You wanted it within throwing height. There you go. Now let's avenge the red pikmin."

I nodded. I was also scared. This planet was getting scarier by the minute. Literally. We raced to the landing site, placed the reds back in the onion, and got out one hundred yellows. We sprinted back to the blowhog, which was already beginning to recover. Blood was dripping onto the ground, which disturbed me, but it was shaking itself and beginning to ascend. We began throwing pikmin onto it. Even my limited range was enough for pikmin to reach. With the extra weight and its wound, the blowhog couldn't maintain its altitude. It crashed into the ground once more, and we swarmed it.

It had a giant health bar, much higher than anything else on the planet. It took a long time, even with one hundred pikmin constantly attacking, even with the onion's attack, even though it never fought back, it took at least five minutes before the creature was finally destroyed. It did that signature blowhog death: popping and its emptying air causing it to blow off into the air. But we gained nothing from it. It didn't contain any ship part.

"Why is this causing me to feel like this?" I muttered. That exhaustion I was feeling was gone. Adrenaline was pumping, and I was feeling guilty and miserable. It had caused many pikmin deaths and pushed our progress back at least a day. Yet, after seeing it so helpless, I wondered if it was worth it. Killing it… felt unnecessary and worthless, and I knew neither was true. "Do you feel guilty at all?"

Olimar shook his head. "We have to survive, Jason, and it was preventing that. Are you going to be okay?"

I nodded, even though I didn't feel okay. My stomach was hurting. "Let's check on the pikmin," I said, more to change the subject than anything. We walked back to the red onion. It was slanted; one of its legs was shorter than the other two. The hole in its dented armor wasn't large enough to cause a huge problem, but as shown earlier, pikmin could fit through it.

"How is it going to lift off?" I asked. "Space is a vacuum, right? The pikmin will be sucked out if it tries lifting off."

"It's organic, so it can heal itself. But it's going to take a long time. Damage like that doesn't heal in a few days," Olimar said. "I fear we're going to have to move on without the red pikmin."

"Is that even possible?" I asked.

"Is it? Are there any fire hazards?"

"There's one in front of the last ship part in the Forest Naval. But they're our strongest fighters."

"And they've proven themselves on multiple occasions. But it's time we bid farewell to them. We've given them the push they need to survive on their own. Their actions this morning, their willingness to attack without our direction, has proven that." Olimar faced the onion. "I do hope you can understand me, Pikmin. Please, repair your ship. We do not need your services anymore. Do what you must to survive, even if it means leave us."

We waited a moment for the onion to respond, but it didn't. We decided to let the pikmin decide for themselves. We replaced ten yellows with blues, and we left the arena in search for the final ship part of the area. There were only two obstacles between us and the Snargret: the box and a bulborb. The latter we took down quickly (couldn't reach it because the wind stopped us before we reached it), and the box took very, very little time. Olimar merely grabbed the blue pikmin and threw them at the box, and the pikmin did the rest. The most nerve-wracking part was getting the pikmin to bunch enough to avoid falling into the water (I swear the bridge was even smaller than it was in the games).

And then we were there. The arena where the snargrets were burrowed. I explained that there may be more than one creature, and that we should prepare for any amount. "Even on hundred, knowing this planet."

"Can we kill one hundred?" Olimar asked. "Are those Snargrets as menacing as your Smoky Progg?"

"They shouldn't be. Not even close," I said. "But I don't know how strong they are anymore. Prepare for the worst"

We cautiously entered the arena, keeping our pikmin close by in case of a surprise attack. We searched for any moving dirt, knowing full well that the movement would signify the Snargret's(') location(s) before any sound would. We said nothing, focusing all of our attention on the ground. And then the ground began to shake, and Olimar and I took a pikmin, ready to throw. But then another spot shook, and then another. And then two more.

"Not the worst case," I grumbled. Three more. "Eight. All surrounding us, but a manageable amount." And within a matter of second, hundreds of possibilities passed in front of my eyes, each more terrible than the last: the snargrets actually being Pileated, the snargrets connected into one creature, the snargrets having wings and flying, the snargrets shooting fire, the snargrets firing heat seeking missiles!

But then the eight heads popped out, and then the body they were connected to dug its way out from under us. We were shoved aside as the eight heads screamed in anger.

"Not the worst case," I repeated, still shaken from the missile hallucination. I couldn't eliminate that possibility; I thought I could see fire in their throats.

"Jason!" Olimar shouted. He was on his feet and moving backwards, throwing pikmin as he ran. I was on my knees and staring on the ground, and the Snargret Hydra (as we later named it) was chasing my friend. I jumped to my feet and started chasing the Hydra. Half of its heads turned to stare at me and the body stopped-

Sorry, its body. Well even though the hydra of legend was a dragon (and had seven heads), this creature's body better emphasized its bird rather than its serpent. It had two large, white wings, a thin, yet meaty blue body, about as long as its necks, and two chicken legs with very sharp talons. The very same talons that shot at me when the back heads saw me. By the way, the heads were the same as the game, just attached to the body in a circle around its top, with no space between each head.

I managed to dodge the leg, but I didn't see two of the heads biting at me until they swallowed a few of my pikmin. I threw a few onto the heads before they retracted, and the several pikmin now clinging onto the creature revealed its health bar. Strangely, (or not, admittedly) it was divided, visibly by black lines, into eight pieces.

"Are the heads really going to pop off when one of those pieces empties?" I wondered. I imagined a motion that was more disturbing than I intended, and I very nearly threw up right there.

Meanwhile, the Hydra had continued its pursuit of Olimar, who had nearly emptied the first piece. He had managed to keep all of his pikmin alive, and whenever the Hydra snapped at him, he dodged neatly with his pikmin. I watched as he took down the last sliver of the section, and the head indeed fell off. However, it wasn't the gruesome and gory way I imagined (no blood anywhere, I'm happy to say). It was comical, with the snargret's other heads staring at their fallen head incredulously. The head's neck exploded into the severed head that normally appeared in the second game.

This victory came with a price: the snargret was now severely threatened by our presence, and what once was only a warning to keep us away from its home now became a madness to drive us away forever. It charged at us, heads forward and snapping, and as we dodged out of the way it only just avoided crashing into the wall. In fact, it came so close that its heads had to bend upward because otherwise they would have hit.

"Think that trick against your Elephant will work?" Olimar asked.

I bit my lips in thought. "No use in not trying, right?"

We got up against the wall as the Hydra turned around and faced us. Steam came out of its beak's nostrils, and its face turned a faint shade of pink. It scraped the ground and lowered its heads again. It charged at us, and we let it get as close as possible before dodging. It indeed crashed into the wall, but unlike with the Elephant there were no stalactites to impale it. Instead, the Hydra toppled to the ground and lay, stunned. We took the opportunity to throw as many pikmin as possible, and we were rewarded with another of its heads popping off. It got to its feet and shook the pikmin off, and we whistled, stepping backward in case the snargret decided to attack.

The snargret turned around, all of its heads glaring at us. It then jumped into the air and dug into the ground, leaving the battlefield in a tense silence.

Olimar and I returned to staring at the ground, facing away from each other and moving to the center of the arena.

"This is fun," I muttered. The day just passed its half way point.

"It certainly is entertaining," Olimar agreed, with no touch of sarcasm.

And then several points around us began to shake. Not just the six remaining heads, whose location was clear as the ground shaken was much larger than the others, but also several points around the heads which were much smaller. That could mean only two things to me.

"Olimar, we're either going to have a swarm of sheargrubs," I said. "Or-" And then the ground broke apart, and it was indeed the latter.


	20. Chapter 19: Killing Babies

Chapter 19: Killing Babies

I hadn't thought about the morals of what Olimar and Louie did until I went on this adventure. Not only did they potentially cause the extinction of at least three species, but also they went into the homes of several creatures just to get money. And hearing about how terrible Hocotate was to begin with, I have to, now, ask whether it was worth it. Sure, their company may not go under, and the excess money might actually stimulate the planet's economy, but they killed so many creatures in order to do so. And let's not go into the tragedies that are the Bulbmin and Larva Bulborbs.

But this… this was cruel. There's a clear difference between piloting those guys behind a controller and actually committing the sins yourself. What popped out of the ground were dozens of miniature snargrets, about the size of us. Yes: they were babies. And they were fighting to protect their nest.

I stepped backward, not out of fear, and Olimar noticed my motion and immediately stepped in front of me. "Jason," he said. "If you have any doubts, leave the arena. I can handle this."

I didn't know what to say. I didn't leave, but I let Olimar control my pikmin. I stepped far back, leaning against the wall, watching silently as Olimar swarmed many of the Minigrets. The parent saw this, swiped at Olimar a few times, and shrieked in anger. The babies followed, with squeaks that were higher pitched than dwarf bulborbs'. The Hydra charged at Olimar, who was busy with a few other Minigrets. He moved away unknowingly just in time, but some of the pikmin were crushed and their ghosts soared away.

I was torn: I wanted to help Olimar, because I didn't believe he could win this fight himself, but I didn't want to kill the babies, because who does? I thought quickly, and decided to focus my efforts only on the parent, even if a million babies were surrounding me. I shouted this to Olimar, and he shouted back his approval. He gave me several pikmin and took down a few more babies.

I threw several pikmin onto the Hydra, who was too busy with Olimar to notice, and only when it was too late, when the third piece had emptied, did the snargret notice. It shook off the pikmin and, in the process, shook off its third head. It screamed in anger, or pain, honestly I had no idea, and its Minigrets shouted in response.

"They don't know what they're doing," I groaned. The snargret faced me now and dug its claws into the earth. I braced for the charge and dodged when it came. The snargret avoided the wall, but when it turned around I was there with many pikmin hurting towards it. It shook off as many as it could, but I threw as many as possible in a near endless stream, whistling any that had fallen off when I was running low. Using this strategy, I managed to take down the fourth and fifth heads without it counterattacking. As its fifth head fell off, it jumped back into the ground again, and its babies followed.

Olimar had lost many pikmin due to the vast numbers of Minigrets, and he was panting heavily. We had about sixty pikmin left, and we were incredibly tired. Thankfully, we still had a third of the day left, so we had plenty of time.

We watched the ground carefully, regaining our strength for the final attack, when the Hydra suddenly shot out from underneath us. We didn't even have time to dodge because it was so quick; it swallowed three pikmin in each mouth and dug back into the ground before we could throw any pikmin on it. We ran to another spot, closer to the wall, but the Hydra did the same trick. It swallowed another nine pikmin and disappeared.

"Jason, we have to go!" Olimar said. "It'll just keep doing this until we lose all of our pikmin."

"There has to be a way to defeat it," I said.

"Well, we could get close to the wall," Olimar said.

"Why?" We started running to the wall despite my question.

"Because it might be uncoordinated enough to crash into the rock."

"I wouldn't call it uncoordinated," I muttered. "I'd call it stupidity."

And stupid it was, as it tried the same trick again, but one of its heads crashed into the rock and its whole body flew out of the ground at an awkward angle, spinning in the air, with a chunk of its sixth piece of health gone. It crashed to the ground and we threw all of our pikmin onto it. The next piece emptied and the Hydra lost another head, but it didn't wake up, so the pikmin managed to take off its second-to-last head.

That, it felt, and it shrieked in pain, or anger, and jumped to its feet. It was now completely red: no blue or white at all. Even its eyes were bright red. It charged at us blindly, and when we dodged it turned around and charged again. It continued this several times, and even when we got next to the wall it managed to regain its balance (thanks to the lack of extra heads, I suppose) and avoid knocking itself out. We tried throwing pikmin as it charged, but they couldn't get a hit off before they were knocked away.

So, Olimar gave control to me and charged at the Snargret. He jumped (I nearly gasped at that point) and grabbed onto the Snargret's leg, and started hitting it. It couldn't feel the pain, as it continued charging with no falter, but its health was slowly diminishing. Olimar climbed onto its back, keeping a firm grip on its feathers and whacking it every once in a while, and climbed up onto its neck. He started climbing the neck, and that's when the Hydra felt him. It stopped and shook its neck violently to remove him. However, it had stopped and was distracted, and I swarmed its legs with the pikmin. They took down the last of its health as Olimar climbed onto the bird's head. He stomped onto the bird, sending it to the ground, and the pikmin finished it off.

The bird exploded, leaving its eighth head and the ship part. We shouted in joy and hugged each other.

"Excellent work, Olimar!" I shouted.

"You too, my friend, you too."

We got our pikmin to carry the ship part and a few of the heads, and then returned to get the remaining heads once that wave had finished. We had lost forty yellows, sure, but we gained so much more thanks to the eight heads.

When we arrived at base with the ship part, we noticed something tragic: the red onion was gone. Whether it had flown off or dug into the ground, we couldn't tell. All we knew was that we couldn't use red pikmin anymore.

"This is a sad day," I sighed. "Goodbye reds. Good luck surviving."

"Do you know where we'll go next?" Olimar asked.

I counted on my fingers. "We could go to the Forest Naval and get that last ship part or go to the Distant Spring and get three others."

"So where do you want to go?"

"If we go to the Distant Spring, we won't have to face a giant creature. Yet, anyway. I'd rather go there. Leave the Forest Naval until the last moment."

"What is in the Forest Naval?"

"Giant spider."

"What?"

"Eight legged bug. Very creepy."

"Bug?"

"Insect. Creatures very tiny."

"Oh. Well if they're so tiny, why do you fear them?"

"There was this time when I was younger… actually, it's too embarrassing. It just made me fear bugs."

"Jason, if I didn't want to know I wouldn't ask. Please answer."

"You'll laugh."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because it's embarrassing."

Olimar kept staring at me, showing no emotion except concern. "Okay," I said. "When I was younger, I think five, I was walking around my house when I saw the basement door open. My parents always told me not to go down there, but I was curious. I walked down the stairs carefully, and when I reached the bottom I hit a spider web. They're very sticky, and it wrwapped around my head. I closed my eyes and walked around blindly until I tripped over something and scraped my knees on the floor. I started crying, and when I opened my eyes I saw a giant tarantula right in front of me. It seemed to stare at me, and its disgusting mouth opened and closed hungrily. I screamed and tried shaking it off, but it was stuck to the web and wouldn't let go. The only thing that saved me was my mom, who took the tarantula off, crushed it, and comforted me.

"As I said, embarrassing, but the bug was the size of my face, and it was basically wrapped around." I shuddered. "And the creature in the Forest Naval is that bug, only much, much larger, albeit with less legs."

"If you don't mind me asking, do you fear all bugs similar to that 'Tarantula' or just that creature?"

"All bugs. Can't stand them."

Olimar nodded, and we walked in silence for a few moments. "Then you want to save that creature until the end?"

I grimaced. "Honestly, if I had to choose between fighting it and the Smoky Progg, I'd choose it. It may be a giant spider, but it isn't nearly as threatening as the Progg."

"And if we see your Snake again?"

"Then we choose the Naval creature, then the Snake, then the Progg."

The day was ending. Olimar did some math in his head. "Jason, check your suit. How many days do we have?"

I didn't know how to check, and I told him that. He pressed a black button on his chest, and a meter appeared on his arm. "This is how much time we have left." There was a semicircle of marks, and there was an arrow that was inching closer to the number "18". "I have just over seventeen days left. Meaning by the end of day 30 I have to leave.

I pressed a similar button. My arrow, however, was pointing to the number "6". I showed this to Olimar.

"So we have to get all of the ship parts by the end of day 18." He did some math. "If we get three ship parts tomorrow, then we'll only have to get one more each day,, and we'll make it."

"Means within five days we have to face three giant creatures." I groaned. "Possibly four. Why does everything have to be so difficult?"

"You're more than welcome to rest for a day and let me take over."

"Absolutely not," I said indignantly. "I'm not going to abandon you. No matter what creature we face."

"Happy to hear it, Jason. I hope you maintain your determined attitude for when we need it."

The countdown began. We plucked the several pikmin, which took quite a long time, and we checked our numbers one last time. We entered the rocket and soared into space, with only two onions following us. This would be the last time we would see the Forest of Hope. However, as we left the planet, I saw nothing follow us into the arena. The Forest was completely empty.

I stared out the window, trying not to reflect on what we had to kill today. I didn't want it to negatively affect me in our future obstacles, not like the extinction episode. I still felt like I disappointed Olimar that day, even if he never showed it. Even today, I felt somewhat useless. Olimar set aside his morals in order to survive, but I couldn't do that. I didn't have Olimar's strength. As I watched Olimar pilot the ship, I wondered what he was thinking: if he thought of me as weak and getting in the way or immature and pathetic or an actual partner he was happy to have. I couldn't tell; Olimar kept a strong façade.

I wanted to saw something to him, but I couldn't find the courage. He set the ship on auto pilot and got up. "Let's rest, Jason. Only six more days to go."

"Right," I muttered. "Only six. For me."


	21. Chapter 20: Three Simple Puzzles

Chapter 20: Three Simple Puzzles

Day 13…

We got out of the ship and got a few yellows. Thankfully, the bomb rocks underneath the skull had indeed respawned, so we took the bomb rocks and blew up the darker metal wall. We got out about eighty blues and marched through the gate. The first things we saw were dwarf bulbears sniffing around a sleeping Spotty Bulbear. We "Goomba-stomped" the dwarves and swarmed the parent. It fell, and several blues took the body back to base.

Then we saw the Snooping Snitchbug, and I realized that we hadn't seen any in the days we were here. Normally one appears at base the first or second day to slightly annoy me, but this was the only one in the Distant Spring. We took it down before it could annoy us, which was a good thing, I suppose, but a few days ago I described the enemy to Olimar and he didn't even get to see it in action. Great warning, eh Jason?

Anyway, with all of the enemies in the area gone, there was the matter of the small ship part on top of the platforms. This was why we took the yellows. Olimar carefully walked up the ramp, making sure to keep all ten yellows with him at all times. I walked behind him, just in case a pikmin fell off, so I could throw it back to him. Thankfully, he managed to reach the ship part and threw the yellows to carry it, and we left them to their work.

Now there were the ponds, where another group of bulbears lay. We swarmed them quickly and moved up to the large lake. There was no Puffy Blowhog. We entered the shallow part of the lake and, after taking care of the water dumples with no losses, began one of the best puzzles of the game, albeit one of the most annoying. We threw about thirty pikmin onto the platform, and then Olimar rode the geyser up to throw those pikmin into the yellow candypop bud. Those blues were transformed into yellows, and Olimar threw them to me, where I threw them to the ship part. They carried the ship part to the ground, where Olimar whistled them back and gave thirty blues the job of carrying it back to the ship. We turned the yellows back into blues and moved to the final puzzle. The day was around half over by then. We were moving rather quickly.

The final puzzle wasn't too difficult: throw pikmin onto a ledge, ride another geyser up, and throw those pikmin onto the ship part. Olimar took care of that. And that was it. We followed the pikmin to the ship, gathering up all of the bodies along the way. The ship parts were collected, and we left the planet as the day ended.

Pretty boring, 'eh? Well I enjoyed it. Nothing surprising me and giving me another heart attack. Nothing attacking us and killing half our pikmin before we could react. Nothing abnormal besides the missing Puffy Blowhog. The Smoky Progg didn't make an appearance. We faced minimal enemies. We collected three ship parts. A very successful day, even if it was a bit boring.

An interesting tidbit: as we collected the third ship part, the ship upgraded itself.

"Interesting," Olimar said. "There's a new area. Should we go there?"

"Does it only have one ship part?" I asked cautiously. I knew what this meant, but I didn't know what it would mean.

Olimar nodded.

"We shouldn't be able to see that place yet," I muttered. We had collected 25 ship parts up to that point, which was an "even" number I suppose, but in the game we had to collect 29 ship parts. And then I realized why this had to change: the snake had eaten a necessary ship part, and we had no idea where it was (if it was still alive).

"Then after we finish the Final Trial," I muttered. "The true final area will open?"

The day was ending. We collected our pikmin and entered the ship.

"I'd call that a great day," Olimar said gleefully. "So what were you muttering? Something I shouldn't know, right?"

I was about to answer, but there was something about Olimar's tone I didn't like. "Is there something wrong, Olimar?" I asked as sincerely as I could. Which was very little. I was starting to get angry.

"It's been nearly two weeks since we first met, and I still know very little about you. We rarely talk about each other's past; most of the time we're screaming orders at each other. I know your name and your fear of creatures called 'spiders' and that you know a lot about this world, but that your information can be incorrect occasionally, and that you do not like killing creatures who do not directly attack you, and that you-"

"Please stop. I get it: you think I'm weak. I know I'm weak. I don't need you reminding me."

"I don't think you're weak, Jason. Your knowledge is invaluable and, without it, we would not have survived. And you've proven yourself on many occasions to be a capable fighter. You just have morals that interfere with survival, something you cannot help because of your youth. It's not something to be hated or looked down upon."

I looked at the ground, blushing. Olimar made me feel immature and pathetic without trying. As always, as freaking always, he was right. I was honestly surprised he didn't despise me for being so ignorant.

"Well, let's talk, I guess," I said. "When we escape, what will you do?"

"First, I'd find your parents and drop you off. I'd give them my number if they had any questions. Then, I'd comfort my family. Finally, I'd go back to vacation. One of the many beach planets. In a couple weeks I'd go back to work and tell my boss and coworkers about our journey. Then I'd go on about my daily life."

"You won't tell the newspapers?"

"I'd request that the planet be protected and examined. I might join scientists on their expedition if they ever decide to examine the planet, so long as the pay is good. I think my son might enjoy this place, and the pikmin."

"Would you bring a pikmin home?"

"I couldn't imagine bringing the pikmin from its natural habitat. I have no idea what the cruel deserts of Hocotate would do to it, and my dog, Bulby, would no doubt eat it at the first opportunity. It's best to leave them here, to survive on their own, than to move them into places they no doubt wouldn't want to go."

I couldn't think of another question. "What will you do when we return?" Olimar asked. And then I remembered why we didn't explain our past: my past makes no sense in the context of Olimar's knowledge. He probably knew that, anyway, and was watching me closely, just in case I slipped again.

I tried to play it cool. "I'll probably tell my parent what happened and brag to my friends. Maybe draw a couple scars so I can show them and fool them. I was thinking about going to news stations and telling them, maybe get myself a few book deals and tell my story."

"What are news stations?"

"You don't have television?"

"What's 'television'?"

I sighed. "Magic picture box. Shows moving pictures. News reported things happening at the moment to the general public. Lets people know what's going on."

"Oh, that's television. 'Hocotate TV' is what we call that. News stations, though, don't exist."

"Shame," I said. With all of the "Earth words" I used, I was surprised Olimar didn't ask where I was really from. Maybe he was saving that question for later, for when we escaped and were heading 'home'. I didn't know what would happen after we escaped the planet, and I was fully prepared to make a life on Hocotate. I might admit to having no parents there and ask Olimar to adopt me. Or I could join Olimar on his second trip to the Pikmin planet with Louie, get a share of the money, and start a life on my own. Yeah, according to Olimar, the planet was terrible, but I was optimistic about my future there.

But first, I had to overcome the many challenges of the Distant Planet. Most notably, the awkward conversation occurring right now. Olimar had just asked me about my school and my friends. I told them about you and our circle of friends. Olimar wasn't too impressed. I was vague, mentioning names and basic descriptions but nothing else. I told him I hated school and wished it never existed, and at that he looked seriously disappointed. One of the few honest things I've said, and he's disappointed with me. That's another reason why I didn't like these conversations.

So, it ended shortly after. Olimar described some of the planets he'd been to (some beautiful tropical planets, some hot desert, some cold tundra, some magnificent technological, some primitive tribal) and explained that of all the planets he'd stepped foot on, this was the most mysterious and interesting. I'd hope to think I helped with the latter description more than the former, but I doubted it.

"Where are we going tomorrow, Jason?" Olimar asked.

"Well, we have a choice: Fight a giant spider, fight the Smoky Progg, or fight another giant monster." I had to seriously consider this. "Forest Naval."

And, after that, we watched the planet in silence. Olimar scribbled some notes down, while I got ready for bed. Recalling that traumatic moment with the spider, as well as the thought of fighting the Beady Long Legs, made every dream I had about spiders. About millions and millions of spiders. All climbing up me, surrounding me, engulfing me.

Sorry, have to go to the bathroom. Uh, throwing up.


	22. Chapter 21: Spiders

Chapter 21: Spiders

Sorry about the toilet. I'm back. But just to warn you: the fight with the Beady Long Legs was not too dissimilar from my dreams. Yeah… not pleasant.

Day 14…

We landed in the Forest Naval for the first time since the Elephant fight, getting to work immediately. There were a couple places with bomb rocks, so we split up to tackle both. The first was simple, just beyond the spring. All that was needed was to build a bridge. Olimar took that. Mine involved building one of the sticks up one of the pools of water. Also rather simple, but a mistake could send all of the yellows into the water, and the bomb rocks would dissolve into nothing.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened, and we reached the wall with at least fifteen bomb rocks. We threw pikmin five at a time, carefully timing them so that the fire and bomb rock explosions wouldn't kill any of them. Once the wall had crumbled, we entered the arena of the Beady Long Legs.

"It'll drop from the sky," I warned him. We cautiously stepped closer to the center, one hundred yellows in tow. I told him to dismiss them and took it upon myself to call the creature down. I stepped in the direct center and looked up, seeing the shining of a web high in the sky. I moved across a circumference until I saw the trees above move and leaves start to float to the ground. And then the creature appeared: a flash of yellow, and then a shockwave that knocked me off my feet. The Beady Long Legs let out a roar and towered over me in all its horror.

It looked almost exactly like it did in the games, its only difference being a much larger "head" which was more similar in size to a Raging Long Legs', and at first it moved like it as well. It stomped twice with each leg before stopping to rest. We had recalled our pikmin in the Beady's stomps and took the opportunity to throw as many as we could onto the creature. Even with the majority of our pikmin attacking the beast, barely a fourth of its health fell before the creature shook them off.

"It's much stronger," I said.

"Why does it have such a large sphere?" Olimar asked.

"That's where it holds the ship part."

"The ship part isn't that large!"

I couldn't think about that too much. The Beady Long Legs was moving towards us in a slow and awkward charge. We dodged aside easily, and when the beast stopped once more we threw all of our pikmin onto it. When exactly half of its health fell, it shook the pikmin off and jumped high into the air. Fearing for the famous "Bulblax Slam", I whistled the pikmin and left the arena. Instead, the trees above shook once more and a high pitched scream filled the Forest Naval.

And… and then they came. Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny spiders – not dweevils, mind you, those are comical in a strange way – hairy, fat, agile, and creepy dropped down from the sky, obviously released by the Beady. They fell everywhere, not just in the arena; across the entirety of the Forest. Some I saw dropped into the endless void, while others fell into flame geysers and were consequently broiled. The vast majority, literally two hundred, landed safely on the ground and sprinted towards the only food remaining in the entire Forest: us.

"Oh my god" I muttered as the nearest spiders reached us. They jumped into the air and landed on pikmin, biting into them as they screamed in pain and wrapping them up in their webs. I was frozen. Olimar had to take over and swarm the spiders. The spiders fell onto their backs, their legs writhing in pain, before they died. But our pikmin were still wrapped up in the webbing, and no matter what we tried we could not get them out. And they still counted as part of our group because they were still alive. We just couldn't use them.

So it was ninety eight pikmin versus one hundred and ninety eight spiders. And the spiders had the upper hand: they knew where we were, but we couldn't sense them.

Oh yeah, and they were freaking spiders! The creepiest creatures on the planet!

But at least we didn't have to search for them; they were sprinting towards us at an incredible pace. They climbed over walls and onto unreachable platforms to get to us. Many came at once. When they attacked, they emitted a high pitched squeal and snatched a pikmin. It took quick reflexes to kill the spider before it could incapacitate our pikmin, but at many times we weren't fast enough. They came too quickly in too many numbers, and I was too afraid to get snatched myself to do much other than get in the middle of the pikmin and use them as meat shields. Yeah, I was that scared.

Olimar, though, acted without fear and hesitation. As soon as he heard the squeal, he "c-sticked" the pikmin in every direction, making sure to get at least a few pikmin onto the spider before the entire swarm could swarm. He saved the majority of our pikmin during the ambush.

And then the spiders realized who was in charge. They swarmed the Captains. First was Olimar. He was attacked from behind, and I couldn't react fast enough before the spiders engulfed him. "Olimar!" I shouted, coming to my senses and swarming the spiders. The many spiders were killed, but Olimar was wrapped up similar to my pikmin. And now I was alone. I backed up against a wall, leaving the spiders no chance to sneak up on me.

So they attacked en force, growing as many numbers as fifteen at once. That attack left a lot of my pikmin in webbing. I tried as hard as I could to save them, but their numbers were too great and I was still scared to move my pikmin too far away from me. If the spiders somehow rolled too far away, I couldn't risk reaching them. By the last fifty or so spiders, I had about forty pikmin. There was a period where no spiders attacked, so I tried whistling some of those encased, to wake them and help them break free. There was movement in the cocoons, but the webbing was too strong. One was nearby, and I tried pulling that one out, and even I couldn't free it.

Then the final attack came. Spiders came in groups of five, coordinating their attacks to take down as many pikmin as they could. For some reason, they never went for me, but their attacks worked. They took down a large number of mine before I could whittle down theirs. By the last dozen, I had twenty, and at those few numbers I couldn't kill the spider fast enough. The last few had enough time to swarm two before I killed them. And then the final spider got my last pikmin.

Adrenaline was pumping during the final attack; I didn't think and barely knew what I was doing. I just did, without thinking about the consequences or even the safety of my friends. I just had to kill every last spider, because they got Olimar. When the spider jumped onto my final pikmin, I tried beating it to death myself. For some reason, it didn't have a health bar, so I couldn't tell how close it was to death, but I knew that I wasn't fast or strong enough. It jumped off my pikmin and faced me. It lifted its front legs into the air and beat its abdomen.

"Bring it on," I said. I wished I had a knife or a shotgun, or Olimar. Olimar would be good. The spider squealed, and I braced myself for when it jumped. It landed on me and tried biting my helmet while I hit it as hard as I could. It grunted in pain and pressed my hand against the ground. It spat webbing from its back and started twirling me around. I couldn't feel the web's texture due to the suit, but I couldn't move my legs because they were wrapped so tightly. While I was spun, I hit the spider whenever I could, praying that I could kill it before I was done. When it reached my upper back and started with my arms, I headbutted it, knocking it off me. I couldn't get to my feet, but I crawled so that I was facing it. It got to its many feet, shook itself, and jumped back onto me.

It was on my back now, and when I tried lifting my head I came in contact with air. It started spinning me, and it got my left arm. I managed to clock him with my right arm one last time, and it fell off me. I could hear it groan; it was close to death. This was it. I pushed myself forward, right up to it and its disturbingly realistic body, and slammed my head down onto its face. Its spirit floated away, and I was left victorious.

And then the Beady Long Legs dropped down from its web. It was angry; I had killed its children. I thought I was doomed when I heard the creature's scream, but the shockwave unraveled the webbing, freeing me and weakening the others' enough so that they could free themselves. Olimar was the first to get up, and seeing me he ran up and hugged me.

"What happened?" He asked. "Jason, I'm so sorry!"

Adrenaline was still pumping. I didn't have time to talk; I had to kill that creature and rid the world of its evil. I got as many yellows as were free and ran into the arena once more. I threw as many pikmin as possible as it stomped, swiftly avoiding its legs and whistling the pikmin that fell off. Olimar soon joined me, and as he threw I noted that finally, two weeks into this journey, he and I threw pikmin at the same height and at the same rate. The Beady Long Legs collapsed under the pikmin, and its last health depleted. It let out one last roar, exploded, and the ship part dropped from the sky.

"We won," I said. I sat down, not knowing how I should feel. The fear of death had ruined the victory; I cared not for winning, not even glad that I and Olimar were alive. Olimar ordered the pikmin to carry the ship part, watching them carefully as they walked over the geyser, and let them carry it to the ship.

The day was nearly over. Olimar walked over and sat down next to me, patting me on the shoulder. "Way to go, Jason, you conquered the Spider."

"I did," I muttered. "I guess I did."

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

My heart was pumping and my head was throbbing. I shook my head. "I'm just glad you're safe. I honestly thought you were dead."

"So was I," he chuckled. "To be honest, I wasn't scared of dying. I was scared of leaving you alone."

"How was it like, being wrapped up?"

"I felt disgusted and helpless. It wasn't fun."

"Have you ever faced a creature more threatening than you one on one and win?"

Olimar nodded. "The victory is satisfying, isn't it?"

I looked at the web. "It should be, but I don't feel any better. I don't know how to feel."

"You'll feel better tomorrow," Olimar assured me, getting to his feet. "Only four ship parts left. You'll remember that tonight and be thankful."

"So long as they aren't as hard as this fight, I will be thankful," I said, smiling for the first time that day.

We collected the ship part and lifted off. Three areas were complete, and several bosses defeated.

Only three more areas to go.


	23. Chapter 22: The Progg's Might

Chapter 22: Dangerous Waters

I slept on my victory that night. I thought about how I felt defeated and doomed, and the way I won, using only my skills and not relying on my pikmin during that final battle, made me feel much better about myself. I felt stronger and more confident, and the fears I had about the Snake and the Smoky Progg seemed laughable.

Even so, I would have rather fought the Emperor Bulblax than a full grown Smoky Progg. However, I didn't feel right facing the Final Boss before another boss. And even then, this day we weren't required to face the Smoky Progg. If it came to it, yes we would fight, but the first goal was to get the (albeit not required) ship part on the island. Yes, it required crossing the deep lake again, but I had thought that we could be sneaky enough to avoid getting the Progg's attention. The bridge is above the shallowest part of the lake, so if we kept to that as closely as we could, the Progg wouldn't even know we were there. In theory, anyway.

In reality, however, as soon as we landed, the Smoky Progg was perched right on the edge of the lake, watching our ship. When we exited the ship, it waved one of its arms, and then jumped into the deep water. My legs felt weak.

"It's taunting us," I said.

Day 15…

"Don't worry about it, today, Jason," Olimar said. "You know our plan. Don't let the Progg sidetrack you, unless it attacks us. Don't fall for its taunts. If it has assumed it has won, then it's already lost."

"That makes no sense," I muttered. But I kept my mind clear of the Progg. Each of us took fifty blue pikmin and jumped into the water on either side of the island. Olimar waded first, and after he was half way across I started swimming. We kept quiet, moving very little to avoid vibrating the water. Eventually, Olimar reached the island, and he jumped onto it. I heard a small skirmish as Olimar no doubt defeated the shearwigs, but one of the bodies fell into the water and sunk.

"Jason, swim!" Olimar said urgently. I swam toward the island, taking no heed to the noise or vibrations, just wanting to get out of the water. When I reached the island and pulled myself ashore, I heard a large creature jump out of the water and splash back in. I was pelted with a wave of water and nearly fell off the island. I saved myself, although several of the pikmin fell in instead.

Olimar kneeled over me. "Are you okay?" He asked. "I'm sorry. I should-"

"I'm fine," I said, breathing heavily. "Stop apologizing, Olimar. Things happen. That was the Progg, right?"

He nodded and helped me to my feet. We surveyed the island, which looked similar to its appearance in the game. The Spotty Bulbear was sleeping in its normal spot, and the bomb rocks underneath two skulls, and the blue candypop bud near the bulbear, and of course the shearwigs whose bodies littered the ground. We worked on the enemy first, swarming it and killing it before it could wake up. Then we got our pikmin to build the bridge.

"What should we do the rest of the day?" I asked.

"Judge the Progg's abilities. Maybe engage in a test battle."

"What if that goes wrong?"

Olimar shrugged. "Escape to the rocket and heal wounds. If it happens to be too strong, we'll focus on the final ship part tomorrow and come back to it on day 17."

The pikmin eventually build the bridge, and we swarmed the dead bodies and the ship part. We followed them as they crossed the bridge, but before they could cross it, the water to our left began to bubble.

"Is that the Progg?" I wondered aloud. Olimar noticed it too and whistled the pikmin. He pushed us off the bridge just as the giant green frog leapt out of the water. It jumped over the bridge until its small stump crashed into the bridge, destroying it and sending most of the bodies into the water. The ship part sunk under the surface.

"We have to get it!" I shouted.

"It's fine, Jason, it isn't necessary for us to lift off," said Olimar.

Then the water on the other side began to bubble, and the Smoky Progg surfaced with the ship part in its mouth. It stared at us, smiling, its pupil-less eyes glowing. It then lifted its head up and swallowed the ship part, then continued to stare at us.

"We have to kill it," I said. "Come fight us on land, you coward!" It didn't respond.

Olimar checked the clock. "We still have the majority of the day left. I think we have no choice." We jumped into the water, our pikmin swimming after us. We got close to the creature and started throwing pikmin onto it. The pikmin latched on and started hitting it.

After a hit, I saw its health go down a significant amount, and I hoped that the creature was merely a glass cannon. However, when its health went to zero, the only thing that dropped was a bit of its skin. It shook the pikmin off and dove into the water. The dive sucked us in, and then spat us out as we rode a giant wave. We crashed into the island and got our pikmin together.

"Do you think we just made it angry?" I asked.

Olimar frowned. "I hate doing that to enemies. It always makes them harder to kill."

"Amen, brother," I chuckled. We waited on the island for many moments before the water started churning again. "Get ready!" A whirlpool formed in the center of the lake, ensuring that we stay out of the water. "Great."

"It's preparing an attack," said Olimar.

"Oh, of course," I muttered. "What attack involves a whirlpool?"

And then a giant boulder was shot out of the whirlpool. It landed far away from us, but the mere presence of the giant rock frightened us.

"What kind of an attack is that?" I shouted. "That doesn't even make sense! Whirlpools suck in; they don't repel!"

The Progg resurfaced, its toothless mouth grinning. It waved at us again. Olimar told me to stay on the island, and he swam out and started attacking it. Its surprisingly low health dropped to zero and another chunk of skin fell off. Underneath the skin was pinkish muscle. Olimar tried attacking that, but the moment a pikmin touched it the Progg screamed and dove underwater. Olimar was swept to shore once more.

"That's where we attack it," Olimar said. The whirlpool appeared once more. "I have a feeling it'll be more accurate this time." We moved to a different spot, and another boulder was shot out. It indeed was more accurate, landing where we once sat and rolling back into the water, sucked underneath to be used again. We walked back to the beach, planning to attack it at two angles.

As it resurfaced, we dove into the water. Olimar took the side with no wound and started throwing pikmin, while I waited until the third chunk of health fell. When it fell, we threw pikmin at the two wounds, and the Progg shook the pikmin off violently. However, a new health bar appeared, one that was blue for some strange reason. It had five-sixths of its health remaining. It dove into the water and we landed at shore.

"Excellent!" I grinned. "That must be its true health."

"It's not going to expose its weak points now that it knows we know them," Olimar said. "What is with that blue color?"

"In some games, I recall blue color indicates much more health," I said. "I guess it's true for this creature.

"Games?"

"Long story." Now was not the time.

There was no whirlpool this time, and the Progg didn't resurface. We waited for a while before realizing we had to come to it.

"Should we?"

"Yes."

And that was it. We dove into the water and swam towards the bottom of the lake. We could see the glowing eyes in the distance and followed them. Other than those eyes, it was pitch black. Olimar took my arm and we propelled against each other. The Progg watched us as we descended.

Olimar pressed two buttons on his suit. One turned on a bright light that revealed the Progg in front of us. The other allowed him to speak. "Press the brown and blue buttons," he commanded. I did so, and my light revealed even more of the Progg. We circled the area and noticed nothing except our location: a giant, deep chasm. Except for our breathing, there was silence.

"We're in its element now," Olimar said. "Be careful."

As if to prove Olimar's point, the Progg dashed away, and then reappeared behind us. Its long body encircled us, but its wounds were nowhere to be seen. Olimar grabbed a pikmin and threw it directly at the Progg, and the pikmin latched on.

"Don't throw them at an angle," instructed Olimar. I nodded and we started throwing pikmin at the body encircling us. All around us, health bars were dropping. Chunks of skin were falling off and floating to the surface. The Progg roared and swam away, while the pikmin spun around and floated at awkward angles. We recalled as many as we could, while some idle ones floated to the surface.

"This thing's getting angrier with each attack," I said. It swam back to us and circled us once more. However, before we could strike, it started swimming faster and faster, creating a suction that obviously was the whirlpool we saw on the surface. We couldn't escape; the suction was too strong. Then the Progg grabbed a boulder from the bottom of the chasm and pushed up with it, catching all of us and sending us hurtling out of the water. We slipped off the boulder as we fell and landed in the water, but some pikmin couldn't escape and were crushed.

We whistled the idle pikmin and swam to shore. "Are we done with our test battle?" I asked.

"We can take him," Olimar said. "We have half the day remaining, and we've severely weakened him. If we can immobilize him and let the pikmin hit his weak spots, he'll die."

Olimar's confidence was inspiring. I nodded. "Alright. We'll swim down."

Before we could dive, however, the Progg leapt out of the water. Its body was covered in wounds. It swam over to where we were and slapped the ground without faltering. We could barely escape. Many of our pikmin were crushed. But it was right next to us, and there was a large wound on its chest. I took a group of pikmin, dodged both of its arms, and threw all of them at the Progg's chest. The Progg swiped the pikmin away, but the damage was done; half of its health was gone. It swiped at me, its hand too large to dodge, and I was slapped into the wall. Olimar ran over to me, but the Progg slammed its arm in front of him, preventing him from reaching me.

"Jason!" Olimar shouted, as he dodged another swipe. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head. The wind was knocked out of me, but the crash didn't hurt me. I got to my feet and looked to my left. There was the skull with the bomb rocks underneath. "Maybe we could use those!" But then I remembered the bridge had been knocked out. And then I remembered another location where there were bomb rocks.

My train of thought was derailed when Olimar was knocked into the air and crashed next to me. His pikmin followed, and we were out of reach. The Progg noticed this and submerged.

"Olimar," I said. "I have a great idea! We could use bomb rocks on it!"

"The yellow pikmin can't reach these bomb rocks, Jason," said Olimar, rubbing his head. "Even if they could, the Progg is so agile in the water that the bomb rocks would miss."

"Then we'll get him on land!"

"How?"

The Progg then resurfaced, grabbed the island, and pushed itself on land.

Olimar turned to me. "Let's get those bomb rocks!"


	24. Chapter 23: Farewell Distant Spring

Chapter 23: Farewell Distant Spring

The Smoky Progg walked slowly and tenderly, not only because it wasn't used to walking on land, but also because its wounds were causing it great pain. It watched us as we ran to the mainland, trying to follow us but flinching whenever it took a step. It couldn't lose its prey, however, and followed us despite the pain.

We brought out ten yellows and maxed out our army with blues. Olimar ran to the other skull, where the bomb rocks had respawned. He carried them back to the beach, while I watched the Smoky Progg cross the water. When Olimar arrived, it opened its mouth, and I expected a giant frog tongue to snap out and grab us. Instead, it spat a green liquid at us, which we dodged, but turned the ground a dark brown and started fizzing and smoking.

"That," Olimar said. "Is acid."

"Does acid explode?"

"Let's hope so!" Olimar said, grinning. We ran at the Progg, and it spat another glob of acid at us. We dodged that, and Olimar threw a yellow at it. The yellow dropped to the ground and threw the bomb rock at its wound. The wound exploded into a sea of blood, and the Progg screamed in agony. It dove into the water, and blood rose to the surface.

"Is it dead?" I asked.

"Severely wounded, but not dead. I believe we lost our chance to kill it with bomb rocks. It won't resurface."

"At least we got it." We dismissed our yellow pikmin and, careful to avoid the still-sizzling spots on the ground, dove back into the water. As we swam deeper, we picked up an object rapidly approaching. We swam out of the way and turned around to see the wall behind us get splashed with acid.

"Watch for that!" Olimar warned.

"Should we spin in circles? It could come at us from anywhere!"

"It's wounded. It can't swim as fast. We'd notice if it was behind us."

Sure enough, we felt the water behind us shift. We turned around to see the Progg staring at us, one of its arms clutching its chest, the other clutching the wall. It opened its mouth and we swam away preemptively. We threw pikmin at it, but it jumped from the wall and dove underneath us. We spun around, searchlights shining bright, waiting for the Progg to get closer.

Bubbles blew from beneath us, and we turned just in time to dodge another acid ball. The Progg was far deeper than us, and the only way to reach him was to swim.

"Up or down?" I asked. The sun was starting to dip.

"Down!" Olimar replied. We had come this far; we didn't need him healing. It was now or never. We swam deeper, pikmin behind us at all times. We met three balls of acid, and neatly dodged all three. They were coming less frequently. Blood was floating past us more. We couldn't even see the Progg's eyes. Either it had realized we could pinpoint him because of them, or it was closing them in pain.

We reached the bottom of the chasm, and I was honestly surprised we weren't crushed by the pressure. We couldn't even see the surface. We searched around and saw the Progg leaning against a rock, its eyes closed. Bubbles blowing from its nose, so we knew it was still alive. We didn't let it recover; we threw all of our pikmin onto it. The creature jumped at the first pikmin, revealing its wound, and the next pikmin hit its wound directly. The creature screamed, thrashed around, kicking the rock and sending dust, bubbles, and blood everywhere. Its health bar, now red, depleted.

The thrashing stopped. The Progg started floating to the surface. It was done. Olimar and I cheered, hugged each other, congratulated each other. The pikmin watched us in confusion. We followed the creature until it surfaced, and let the pikmin carry it. It took one hundred pikmin exactly, so we got out the remaining blues and sent them to the Progg.

"I want to open a bottle of wine," said Olimar. "We deserve it, defeating such a ferocious creature!"

"If we're lucky, it ate the Snake and we'll get three ship parts for the price of one," I said, chuckling. Unlike the Beady Long Legs, I was ecstatic to kill it. It wasn't even a matter of morals; it wanted to kill us. It attacked our pikmin first. It was no doubt the terror of the Distant Spring, and we killed it. The creatures of the area should honestly be thanking us for saving them, if there were any alive.

The Smoky Progg was so large that its tail was still in the water when the onion sucked it up. It took several seconds for it to get completely sucked up. And when it disappeared, two ship parts fell out. Alas, the Snake's ship part was not one of them.

"We still have a Snake to fight," I said. "And no cooked noodles."

We collected the ship parts. "Two more to go," said Olimar. "And then we're home free." We got about three hundred pikmin from that creature. Well worth the sacrifice, well worth the time, well worth the fear.

And with this victory came some thought. I had decided that now, after such a great accomplishment, was the best time to tell Olimar the truth. Not the whole truth; I would embellish a little, just in case. But it was time.

"Olimar," I said, breathing heavily. We had enough time. "Let's sit down. Talk. I have something to tell you."

He could tell I was serious, and he complied. We sat down in the middle of the base, silently waiting while I prepared my speech.

"If we go to Hocotate, we won't find my parents," I began. "I have never set foot on your planet." I could tell he already had questions, but he said nothing. "I live on a planet called Earth. On my planet, we have these playable stories, I guess you'd call them, for entertainment. One of them is called 'Pikmin' and it describes the story of Hocotate Freight employee Captain Olimar on his vacation, where he crashes on an unexplored planet and befriends creatures called pikmin.

"During his crash landing, he finds thirty of his missing ship parts scattered across five regions, battling many creatures and discovering blue and yellow pikmin as well as red. Once he collected twenty nine ship parts, the fifth and final area was revealed, containing a complex puzzle and a creature known as the Emperor Bulblax. When he collects his final ship part, the captain escapes, and returns to Hocotate.

"And that's how I know you, Olimar. Everything that happened in that story has happened to us. Except for a few giant creatures that are native to Earth, the Elephant and Snake, and some that were variations on creatures from the story. Ship parts in about the same place, creatures similar, puzzles nearly identical. This whole adventure we've been on has accurately resembled your journey in the story."

I didn't know what else to add, so I shrugged. Olimar's first words surprised me: "Okay, now tell me what you're not telling me."

"I don't understand."

"Several days ago, you referenced a video game. Is that what these 'stories' are called on Earth? Games?"

"Yeah."

"Children are able to play games where the content involves the struggles, survival, and possible death of a man. You live on a sadistic planet, Jason. It's a good thing you turned out as trustworthy as you are."

"It's not that bad," I said in my planet's defense. "Olimar never dies. If he ever loses his health, he rests in the rocket for a day. If all of his pikmin die, the pikmin are reborn the next day. Creatures respawn if Olimar leaves the area for a couple of days."

"Creatures still die. Both of us know the effects of killing on the youth. When realization finally hit, you couldn't bring yourself to kill. You couldn't accept that survival was more important than morals. Not that that's bad, but other children on your planet are living this scenario possibly alone, and they have to learn to evolve alone, when they're too young to understand."

"It's not that bad," I repeated. "You don't understand the concept of a video game. We don't evolve playing video games. We do them for entertainment."

"Then you're getting entertainment out of the struggles of survival. Of my survival. Again, Jason, if that is your idea of entertainment, then I would hate to live on a planet as evil as yours. I'm sorry you'll have to return."

This wasn't going the way I planned. I didn't agree with Olimar: he was taking this far too seriously. But I couldn't deny that he had a point about the entertainment out of survival, but if I told him it was for us to role play as him, then he could've figured out that terrible fact I didn't want him figuring out. That he technically shouldn't exist.

"If you aren't from Hocotate, then how did you end up on this planet? How did you stow away onto my ship and, if you did, how have I not heard of Earth if we can make contact with each other?"

"I didn't stow away," I answered. "The day we met, I was on Earth, replaying the video game, when a lightning storm – if you don't know, a large amount of electricity – hit me, and somehow I ended up unconscious right next to you. Earth has no contact with Hocotate. I don't know how it happened."

"Can lightning cause teleportation or time travel?"

"Only in the movies," I said. Olimar looked confused, so I told him it was another form of entertainment. Completely fictional. "In the real world: no. Not possible. So I have no other explanation for how I got on your ship – if I did – or the planet."

"How did your planet get hold of my adventure? Did they find my journal and make the game out of that? And how did they get it before we finished? Was time travel involved?"

I had no idea how to answer those questions. "I have no idea how to answer that. The games were made only a few years after I was born, and I had no idea how they were made. And no, we don't have nor have we ever encountered time travel. So unless there's something going on that I don't know about: no."

Olimar sighed. "Do you have anything else to tell me?" I shrugged. "Then this explanation hasn't satisfied my curiosity. I have more questions than before. Although now that I know of your source, I'm fairly worried. Are you sure you want to return to your planet? I could find you a home on Hocotate. Even that planet would be friendlier to children than Earth."

"Don't insult Earth too much, Olimar. It's my home, with my family."

"Sorry."

The countdown began. We entered the rocket and said a final farewell to the Distant Spring. Home to one of the most threatening creatures on the planet. Truly, a mighty foe.

Inside the rocket, however, I was contemplating what I told him. I had said all I could, but I don't think it was enough. He wanted to know everything, but I still couldn't tell him that. Mainly because I was still debating its validity. Yes, he didn't exist, but frankly, he did.

Paradoxes? I'm full of them! Also hot air and possibly gas, but that's only what everyone tells me.

I did tell him what the plan was. If the Final Trial was designed similar to its video game incarnation, then we'd do everything normally. Until the fire section. There, we'd use yellows and constantly whistle, in case they catch on fire, and pray they make it to the end.

As for the Emperor Bulblax? He should be easy with two people. Gotta avoid his slam and get a lot of bomb rocks.

As for the Snake? Hell if I knew. I was still wondering if it was worth the risk.


	25. Chapter 24: The Final Puzzle

Chapter 24: The Final Puzzle

Day 16…

We descended in silence, mentally preparing ourselves for the trials ahead. I glanced out the window to see an incredibly different Final Trial than the game, which already worried me. The puzzle in the game was hard enough but this… this was huge and complex! I was speechless.

The starting arena was the same, with a bunch of flowers surrounding the rocket and the three candypop buds on the rocket's right. But there was no pool, at least on the ground level. Instead, there was a pair of large ramps ascending in opposite directions, then doing a 180 and ascending toward each other, meeting on a second floor. However, the endings were separated by a large metal wall, and where the ramps turned there were two pairs of weight blocks. Encasing everything were the rocks and moss that made up the boundaries of the area, so there was no way to lose pikmin to the endless abyss.

"This isn't the same," I muttered, looking to the sky to see the final arena suspended in the air, connected by a short path and nothing else. "And I don't trust that."

"This is an interesting area," Olimar said. "It seems it has been made strictly as a series of mazes and puzzles."

"I have no idea how to solve this," I said. "Should we split up or stay together. Should we bring reds, yellows, and blues?"

"How can we bring reds?" Olimar asked, to which I pointed at the red candypop bud. "What will become of them by the end of the day?"

I shrugged. "We'll turn them back into their respective colors, I guess."

"Good plan." He looked up. "If we can solve this quickly enough, we'll fight your Emperor Bulblax, and we'll have one last ship part before we can escape."

"Have you learned nothing?" I chuckled. "Nothing goes our way."

We got out fifty yellows and fifty blues, and turned fifteen of each into reds. Exploring the area, Olimar found a honeywisp and knocked it out of the sky, letting our reds flower. We then split up, taking half of each pikmin. He took the left.

"Olimar," I whispered, pressing a green button on my suit, opening up communications. "Why have we never done this before?"

"Admittedly: it's because I didn't trust you when we were separated."

"I'll take that as a compliment," I said. "Now, the rocks you see to your right-"

"Left."

"Left should move when you have more pikmin on the taller than the shorter. So do that."

Silence as we concentrated. I suggested twenty six. As we reached twenty six, the blocks shifted, so that the taller was now the shorter. "Now drop onto the bottom one. And then throw a couple onto the taller one, then move onto the ramp."

We did so. "Now drop down and bring up another half."

It took a few trips, and we couldn't bring up all of them, but we brought up ninety six in total. We walked up the ramp and reached the second level.

Honestly, I couldn't see the entirety of the level on our descent, and I had no idea where Olimar's path went, so just try to envision the path as I describe it. Remember: paths are wide enough for a certain creature's body and are covered in dirt and grass.

My path rose to a higher level, and then turned left to cross Olimar's path, essentially creating a bridge. As I passed over Olimar, we wove, and I followed the path as it turned right and sloped to Olimar's level. As I turned right, I saw a line of fire geysers emitting a constant stream of flames. I tried pushing myself against the wall, but there were small piles of dirt that were too steep for pikmin to climb. Even though I was tall enough to step over them, the pikmin weren't, and they were pushed into the fire.

We escaped the geysers and I spoke to Olimar. "Olimar, can you come back to the bridge? We're going to trade."

We met back at the bridge. "There's a line of fire geysers," I explained. "I can't take blues or yellows."

"Well there's a pool of water in my way. I can't take reds or yellows."

I bit my lip in thought. "Is there an indention in the wall," Olimar suggested. "One low enough for yellows to pass?"

We checked, and Olimar confirmed. On Olimar's left was a hole just large enough for pikmin to pass, and at the right height for reds to be thrown up. So we traded pikmin. I threw all of my yellows and blues off the bridge and grabbed the reds Olimar threw through the hole. The pikmin had to climb up a small path to reach me, but we successfully traded. I walked through the geysers, careful to avoid scorching myself, while Olimar threw the yellows over a wall and took blues through the pool.

Passing the geysers, I came across my own pool of water. To my right was a thin rectangle chuck ripped out of the wall. "Olimar," I said. "I need blues."

"Coincidentally, I need reds." Was the reply. So I threw a red pikmin through the rectangle.

"Did you get that?" I asked. Olimar confirmed positively, so we traded pikmin. Half way through the pool, I realized that there was a certain pikmin color missing. "Olimar, what did you do to the yellows?"

"The path I'm on turns to the right, which curves around a tree stump. The yellow pikmin are resting there for now, and I'll retrieve them once I pass the obstacle."

"Oh. Good planning." And we carried on.

The final puzzle of this level involved us on wooden ledges dug into the rock, sloping upward connecting the second and third stories. We saw each other and waved. On Olimar's ledge sat three 10-pikmin boxes, so I assumed the same for me. We walked up to the boxes and swarmed them. Unfortunately, due to their ascension, it required 25 pikmin to push. When the pikmin reached the second box, the number increased to fifty, a number which I didn't have. Olimar, meanwhile, had more than fifty pikmin and was able to push up until the third box. That one required seventy-five.

"Not too difficult of a puzzle," said Olimar. "Just give me your pikmin, I'll push my boxes off, and then give you the rest."

"Okay," I agreed. "How?"

We looked around. "There are some branches hanging off the ledge," he said. "Meet there."

We walked back to the branch at the bottom of the slope. "It's awfully thin," I said. I took a step forward, and my foot was too large to make solid contact. "And it's curved."

"Keep your balance and don't look down," said Olimar.

I turned to the pikmin. "You heard him," I motioned to Olimar. "Don't look down."

I wasn't afraid of the height, even though I knew the fall would kill me. I was afraid the less coordinated pikmin wouldn't be able to stay on. Yes, I know that in the games the pikmin automatically bunched up to fit even the thinnest path, but this wasn't the game, and this was the thinnest ramp I had ever seen.

The pikmin lined up and lifted their arms out, imitating me as I walked forward. Olimar on the other side followed. We met as close to the middle as we could, as there was a gap that separated us. I slowly reached around and grabbed a pikmin, and I threw it directly at Olimar. He caught it and set it down, instructing it to get to safety.

From there, it was a slow process of getting all of my pikmin onto his side. He then joined with his remaining pikmin at the boxes and pushing them away, while I sat on the branch and tried keeping still. His boxes were pushed out of the way and he returned, and we began an even longer process of throwing pikmin to me.

This took up a large chunk of the day, and I feared there wouldn't be enough time to attempt the bosses. Not that I could afford to think about anything but keeping my balance and catching the pikmin at the time, that is. The strain of the former was far too much for me to attempt to think about anything else.

Olimar had few pikmin left, and I was letting my mind wander; I was praying to get off the branch as soon as I could. The heat was getting to me, and my legs were tiring. I lost my balance as Olimar threw a pikmin. I dropped down and grabbed the branch with all my strength, managing to fall on my stomach, but I heard a faint scream and looked down to see the pikmin falling to its death.

"Are you okay, Jason?" Olimar screamed, forgetting the communicator.

I rapidly nodded. "I'm sorry. I screwed up."

"So long as you're safe," Olimar replied. "Can you get back to safety?"

I nodded, getting to my feet, and walked to the ledge, practically jumping the final centimeters. Olimar counted his pikmin and concluded that I had enough. I pushed my boxes out of the way, and we entered the third and final level.

Thankfully, our paths were connected, so we embraced and combined our pikmin. No more of those precarious branches.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left. The sky was darkening and we could tell there was one last puzzle before we could enter the arena. We wouldn't be able to fight the Bulblax today.

"And that just leaves two days left," I said. "One for the Bulblax; one for the Snake."

The most important thing to note was that the wall blocking off the arena was far too large to be broken by bomb rocks. It was a deep black as well, meaning that there had to be something powerful. And that powerful thing was a giant boulder on a tree stump. The stump then formed a ramp.

"That doesn't look right," Olimar muttered. I barely listened. I was already climbing up the ramp. "Jason, stop."

I complied. "Why? All we have to do is push it down."

"If we push, it'll fall off the edge. The ramp isn't at the right angle. It's going that way." He pointed about ninety degrees from the wall.

"We could have the pikmin catch the boulder as it rolls? Slow it down?"

"It's too large. They couldn't catch the Armored Cannon Beetle's, so they wouldn't catch this."

"Is there a way to move the ramp then?"

"It's a tree stump, Jason. Plants can't push wood."

"Yeah they can," I whispered. "Just not like that." I looked around from my vantage point and saw a large rock beneath me. "See if you can push that!"

Olimar swarmed the rock and, believe it or not, it took 50 pikmin to carry it. The rock had a curved surface that, if angled correctly, would send the boulder crashing into the wall.

"Is it good?" I asked. The timer was going to begin soon. This was the last thing we'd do that day.

"The pikmin set it down," Olimar replied. "Go for it!"

I pushed the boulder with all my might. As soon as I touched it, it began to fizzle and crack. It began its descent, picking up speed as it rolled, spinning around the ramp, through the rock, and into the wall. The bomb rock – its true name I now knew – exploded on impact, creating a large hole in the wall. We could hear grumbling inside the arena, and we whistled our pikmin and sprinted down the paths. Our way was clear, but the countdown had begun. We would come back tomorrow for the beast.

This is the bad part: the constant switching of pikmin to pass the obstacles took so much of our time that we didn't have enough time to change the reds. We barely made it to the rocket before the giant 2, so we could only change ten of them. The other twenty? Don't know. We jumped into the rocket and watched as the reds walked away. Don't know where they went. Don't know if they survived. They might've gone to the red onion, wherever it was, but the planet's a dangerous place at night.

Good luck to them, wherever they went.


	26. Chapter 25: The Fight with the Bulblax

Chapter 25: The Fight with the Bulblax

Day 17…

As we approached the Final Trial, there was a welcome sight waiting for us. Unlike yesterday, the final arena was occupied by two giants fighting: the Snake and the Emperor Bulblax. As we descended, we noticed the Snake wrapped around the Bulblax, and the Bulblax leaping high into the air. As it landed, we landed and jumped out of the rocket.

We heard a rumble and felt vibrations. Dust floated from the arena above. "This is fantastic!" Olimar exclaimed. "They're so occupied with each other that we'll be able to reach them unnoticed. And they'll be weakened from their fight."

"We can finally finish this," I said, grinning.

The ten pikmin we had changed yesterday we changed back into reds, along with several other pikmin. We took our time clearing the obstacles, even though we had done it twice already. We knew we had to save our strength, and rushing would only tire us out for the potential finale. However, it didn't take us very long to reach the top. Before we did, however, I had to stop.

"What's wrong?"

I was panting, my head growing lighter. I didn't know if it was because of our height or the suit, and when I explained he said it was the latter.

"Jason, if you feel any light-headedness or nausea, I want you to leave the arena immediately. Get to safety and rest."

"I can handle it, Olimar," I panted.

"No, Jason, you can't. The suit is starting to die on you. This isn't a matter of pride or weakness, Jason. I want you to promise me right now that you'll leave if you start to sicken."

"I- I promise." I winced.

When we reached the metal gate, we joined our pikmin. Dust floated above. The sounds of fighting had silenced.

"Are you ready?" Olimar asked. I nodded, gripping a pikmin tightly.

All of a sudden, the Snake burst from the hole, its health dangerously low. Startled, we forgot to throw pikmin until it had passed us, seemingly blinded by pain. It crashed into the tree stump, shook itself, and slithered with incredible speed off the ledge. We threw a few pikmin at it, but it curled up, heightening to several times our height, and jumped over the side. We ran to the ledges to get a better view as it fell, spinning rapidly, and dug a large hole in the ground.

"Damn," I muttered. "It was so close to death, too."

"We'll fight it later, unless your Emperor Bulblax has as much speed."

"Nope. It's large and slow."

"Then it won't escape."

As we walked back up the ledge, a smell pierced the helmet. "Can you smell that?" I asked.

Olimar replied with a large sniff. "Burnt skin?"

I looked over the ledge again. "That Snake was more injured than I thought."

"And what could your Bublax do that would cause such an odor?"

"Something terrible."

We walked back to the gate and crept through the hole. Standing in the middle of the arena, its health in the yellow, panting and facing us, was the Emperor Bulblax. It was just as large as it was in the original, its eyes on stalks, staring at us, its mouth grimacing in pain. There were some bruises on it, possibly from the Snake's tail, and a line around its back that was clearly from when the Snake crushed it. Even though it saw us, it didn't move.

"It's really beat up," I said.

"It's been choked, slapped, bitten-" Olimar pointed at a pair of bite marks that had penetrated the creature's hard shell. Blood was seeping from both holes. "- and it's still standing. Be cautious."

"Don't have to tell me-" I dropped to the ground. I started panting. It was worse than before; it wasn't a pain, but I couldn't see straight, and my body felt weak. Olimar lifted me up.

"Jason, leave. It's a predator; it can sense weakness."

"I'm not weak." I pushed him away and got to my feet, although I wobbled. "I'm not going to show it I'm weak. I'm going to kill it."

The Bulblax licked its lips and shook itself. It scraped the ground and, when we took a step forward, charged at us with surprising speed. Due to its size, it cleared half the arena in only three steps, and we barely got away in time. It crashed into the gate and fell backward, the arena's slope causing it to lose balance and topple. It rolled several times before landing on its side. We took the opportunity to throw as many pikmin onto it as we could.

And now I'll share with you something horrifying: the creature was at less than half health. I'd guess three-eighths. We managed to throw all of our nearly 100 pikmin onto it, and they got to whack it for several seconds before the Bulblax got to its feet. In all that time with all that power, they knocked off about another eighth. This thing had so much health. So much.

After getting to its feet, the Bulblax shook itself to knock all of the pikmin off. It then jumped into the air and, after we whistled and saved our pikmin, dove into the ground. It submerged and disappeared.

"It'll come back," Olimar warned. "There is no place it can hide. It's too large to travel."

"So avoid that spot?" I asked.

"Avoid it like the plague."

And so we moved to the opposite end of the arena. Unfortunately, Olimar was wrong. The creature was able to move from its spot of submersion, but it created a line of rubble as it traveled, making its path obvious. It moved with surprising agility and reached us within a few seconds. We barely moved out of the way before the beast stuck its tongue out of the ground and whipped it around. It had a long reach, so much that some of our pikmin were captured and eaten.

The Bulblax then crawled out of the ground, but we were ready. We charged at it and threw pikmin, but it jumped into the air to dodge.

"This thing is too large to be that quick," I gasped.

We whistled the pikmin we threw, but the creature dropped and landed, crushing another few before they could escape. It then opened its mouth, trilling its tongue.

"Run!" I shouted. "Run behind it!"

It was a risk, but it paid off. It shot its tongue out and licked the dirt in front of it. Thankfully, it didn't turn around, and we were ready when it did with pikmin in hand. It faced us and was met with a barrage of pikmin. Clearly taken by surprise, it flinched, falling onto the bottom of its shell, and we were able to knock another chunk of its health before it recovered. It jumped to its feet and opened its mouth.

Something was wrong. "It's not trilling," was my only observation before the Bulblax shot a large ball of dark green acid at us. Olimar moved out of the way in time, but I, who not only took a stupid amount of time to announce something I could see with my eyes, but also felt another spout of light-headedness, was unable to clear the acid. A large chunk, about twenty, of my pikmin was melted on contact. Literally, as soon as the acid touched them, their frail bodies evaporated. A few who were lucky to dodge the ball walked into the acid as it splashed across the arena, and they quickly melted into the ooze.

Olimar and I met on the other side of the arena. "I'm sorry," I gasped. I held my head and leaned against Olimar. "I should've listened."

"Too late," Olimar muttered. The Bulblax opened its mouth again. "Move." He pushed me in one direction and dove in the other. The acid ball splashed against the wall, a sizzling and smoking emanating from it.

I got to my feet and it, of course, turned toward me. "It really does sense weakness," I muttered. My head was clearing, but I doubted I could react in time for another ball. To my luck, the Bulblax's eyes widened and it leapt into the air. I could have cheered for my luck, had it not been aiming for me. I jumped out of the way and my pikmin escaped unharmed. It slammed into the ground. The arena itself shook, and sand started to seep through the ground. The arena had cracked, and it was breaking apart.

"Olimar!" I shouted. "The arena's falling apart!" The Bulblax jumped into the air once more. I dodged, and it slammed. Sand was seeping even faster. The arena shook and started to dip. "We're gonna fall!"

"Jason, get to safety," Olimar replied. He charged at the Bulblax, which was shaking the sand off itself. "I'll kill it."

I was about to argue, but I felt nausea returning. I ran to the gate and climbed up to it. The arena was dipping deeper and deeper. It was nearing 45 degrees. Olimar knocked most of the Bulblax's health when the creature roared.

"Get up here! It's going to take the arena down!" I shouted. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. Olimar whistled the idle pikmin and climbed up to the gate. The Bulblax jumped high into the air, higher than it had ever done before. I grabbed Olimar and pulled him to safety, and the pikmin followed. The Bulblax slammed into the ground, causing the arena to literally snap off of the wall. The arena and the Bulblax fell to the ground, causing a pseudo earthquake.

A branch from one of the trees fell and landed where the arena once was, creating a ramp that led to ground floor. The rumbling stopped. We lost forty pikmin in that fight. But the Bulblax, from what we could tell, was dead. There was half the day remaining.

We slid down the branch and landed safely behind the ship. The arena had created a giant crater in the middle of the two onions and Dolphin. Dust billowed from the hole. From what we could tell, there was a path of stones that led down the hole. There was no sign of the Bulblax or the arena itself. There were drops of acid and piles of sand nearby.

"We did it," I muttered. We grinned at each other. "We beat the Bulblax!"

"That leaves one beas-"

A sudden, loud roar echoed from the crater. The ground started to shake, and a green mass rose from the hole. The Emperor Bulblax was on its last bit of health, but it was angry, and definitely alive. It stepped forward slowly, limping, one of its eyes damaged and part of its back deflated. It walked up to the ship and pushed into it, knocking it over.

"The Dolphin!" Olimar shouted, and we charged toward it.

Before we could reach it, another loud sound. This time a hiss. In a flash of brown, the Emperor Bulblax suddenly found itself encased in a shell. A shell that was crushing it, squeezing the life out of it. The Snake, equally as hurt, had wrapped around the Bulblax. The Bulblax's health dropped slowly, and it cried in pain as the Snake applied greater and greater pressure.

We could do nothing but watch in horror as the Snake crushed the Bulblax to death. As the ghost of the Bulblax exited the creature's body, so did another object: the Secret Safe. The Snake saw this ship part and dove for it, swallowing it whole, before we could so much as move. It then stared at us, daring us to get closer, before jumping into the hole and disappearing.

And now the Snake had two ship parts. And I only had one and a half days left.


	27. Chapter 26: The Snake's Lair

Chapter 26: The Snake's Lair

Olimar and I stood speechless, staring at the hole. "Olimar," I whispered. "Did that just happen?"

Olimar nodded out of the corner of my eye. "I'm afraid so." We stepped closer to the hole, peering inside, searching for the slightest movement.

"Now what?"

"We bring the fight to the Snake."

I turned around. The Bulblax's carcass was lying there. "Should we collect it?"

"I see no reason not to."

"We didn't defeat it," I muttered.

"Would you want to give the Snake any more advantage?" Olimar swarmed the Bulblax. It took 50 pikmin, and it produced 50 more. We resupplied our pikmin. A full 100.

"Are you ready?" Olimar asked.

I was about to nod, but the motion caused my head to spin. I tried shaking it, but that also spun. I leaned against an onion's leg.

Olimar walked up to me and checked a few of my readings. "Your Life Support has almost completely broken. It isn't filtering out the poison in the air. Every time you breathe, 30 percent of each breath is poison. The more you breathe, the quicker the poison infects you. You risk disease and death. If we go down there and fight the Snake, and you exert too much energy, you won't survive. Jason, please, if you continue down the cave, be careful."

That was comforting. "I'll be fine," I said, grinning falsely.

"Then let's kill the Snake," Olimar said, and we headed down the hole.

I'm not sure if snakes in real life have giant tunnels that lead to underground lairs, but this one did. The tunnel itself was dark, cold, and sticky. It was also covered in splotches of blood. Bones scattered across the floor. Several smaller holes branches off, although they were too small for Olimar or me. I could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes following me, and it wasn't paranoia.

"Olimar," I whispered.

"I know." Olimar was looking from side to side. "I'd estimate at least one hundred."

I was immediately reminded of the spider battle. "I don't want to relive that."

"Well what creature is more dangerous on Earth? Spiders or Snakes?"

I thought, and the thought sickened me. "Definitely snakes."

"Then press up against a wall and make sure no pikmin are near any holes." He moved quickly, pushing himself and several pikmin against the wall. What he demanded was impossible; holes were scattered over too many places, and to get all one hundred pikmin away from them couldn't be done. As a result, when the snakes attacked, there was no stopping them from snatching up the pikmin.

Oh yes! They attacked! And Olimar was accurate in his guess! A hundred miniature snakes, each one about twice as long as I was tall, and thin, and camouflaged into the rock, snapped at us through the many holes. Some jumped from the ceiling into our pikmin, snatching up one in a quick bite before we could swarm. Some popped out from the walls, snatched a pikmin, and turned around before we could reach them. Some jumped at us from far away. Literally: they jumped from at least twenty centimeters away and reached us.

But we were swarmed and overrun. The snakes were fast and strong, but they had little health and, when in the air, could be taken down by a single pikmin. But they were very smart; too smart. They used distracting tactics, they divided and conquered, they swarmed and retreated. Within a few minutes, Olimar and I had to run for our lives, chased by several dozen snakes. Our entire pikmin line was decimated. We saved five.

When we stopped running, just outside the hole, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. Yeah, that's right, the one with the wound. One of those snakes had latched onto me and bit right through my suit. Olimar killed it quickly, but the deed was done. The snake's fangs were pulled out at an angle, leaving a deep gash in my shoulder that was bleeding profusely. My suit had torn, and unfiltered, poisoned air was seeping in. I couldn't take it; I collapsed and fell unconscious.

* * *

I awoke many hours later in the Dolphin in my bed. My right shoulder was throbbing, and when I turned to look at it I was met with a searing pain.

"Olimar," I whispered. "I need you."

Olimar walked through the door and looked at me sadly. "You should fall asleep. You'll breathe less."

"What happened?"

Olimar had caught me as I fell. There was a slithering amplified by the cavern's echo rapidly approaching, so Olimar decided to end the day early and escaped to the ship. The pikmin reached their onions and the trio of ships entered the atmosphere. Olimar put the ship on autopilot and patched up my shoulder and my suit. I had lost a lot of blood. I had breathed unfiltered air for several minutes. Olimar had stitched my shoulder – not poorly, mind you, given the circumstances – fairly messily. It still bled.

"You're lucky the snake's fangs weren't poisoned," Olimar sighed. "Otherwise you would have been dead."

"You're done." He concluded. "I shall face the Snake myself. You shall rest. Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll have one more day."

"What if you can't beat the Snake in time?"

He punched the wall. Tears flowed down his face. "Don't say that. Do not think like that, Jason. I can't… I'm going to beat the Snake and its children. I will save you."

"Olimar, we were destroyed, I was nearly killed by the Snake's children. The Snake itself…"

"We were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, not strategy. The snakes themselves are weak. I believe the term is a 'glass Hocannon'. But the Snake should not be a threat. It has been weakened by the Emperor Bulblax and will not be able to fully recover, even overnight."

"We're not good at attacking fast targets," I said. "That isn't how the games work. Slow, strong enemies are so much easier to fight; every creature gives you a chance to attack before it attacks itself. The Snake… you've seen how fast it is. It's smart, too. It won't give us a chance to counterattack, Olimar!"

"Calm down, please," he said. His voice was filled with urgency. "You need to preserve your strength. Breathe slowly."

I obeyed. But I felt true fear. Helplessness. There was nothing I could do to help Olimar or myself. "Olimar," I whispered, but the sound pierced the room as loud as a siren. "I'm scared."

Olimar looked at me. His eyes were red. He hadn't slept. Might've been crying. "Me too."

* * *

Final day...

I woke up several times throughout the day. Every time I did, I tried getting to my feet, and my light head forced me unconscious. The third time I tried this, I heard Olimar exit the ship. The fourth, I knew I had to do something. Olimar couldn't fight alone. He needed me. And if he failed, we were both going to die.

I got up, feeling incredible nausea to the point where I did throw up. The helmet was splattered with vomit until the suit cleaned itself up. Couldn't get rid of the smell. I wobbled as I stood on my feet. My head alternated between iron weights and balloons. I walked, and it took all my willpower to stop from collapsing again. Each step felt like trying to lift a truck.

I exited the ship, stumbling as it threw me from its hull. I crashed into the leg of the yellow onion, leaning on it for support. That was fine. I was limping now. I limped to the center and called down the remaining yellows. That wasn't good; it said we only had twenty. I thought we had over one hundred. I took the marathon over to the blue onion, and that was nearly drained as well. Apparently Olimar had made several trips. We only had thirty pikmin left, with sixty already on the field. The number drained once, by five.

I ran over to the cavern. Kidding: I nearly crawled. Already I could see the bodies of small snakes. Dozens of them were spread throughout the cavern. Some in the walls, some on the ceiling, most on the floor. I tripped over them a few times. Took me ages to get back up. Day was a fourth over. We'd lost another five. Olimar was in trouble.

It took several minutes for me to traverse the cave. As it darkened, the amount of bodies lessened. And then there was another light. I wasn't dead yet, although I felt near death. The pain in my right shoulder had started up again, and my intense breathing had no doubt poisoned my lungs to the point of certain death. I was no doubt limping out of pure adrenaline. So the light wasn't the light to Heaven or anything; it was more like Hell.

For starters, there was a cry of pain and the sound of loss which echoed throughout and forced my pace to quicken. And then there was the color: an orange-red. It was dull and bleak. As I neared, I felt a pleasant heat and a terrible smell. The smell of blood. The light at the end showed all of the blood that splattered the walls. Large splotches of it, stretching across the entirety of the entrance. Even my vomit was overpowered. If I tried holding my breath, my head ached, and if I breathed, I nearly puked because of the smell.

"We have to get out of here," I whispered. There was a loud grunt. The ground shook and dust fell from the ceiling. "Olimar needs us." I entered.

And there it was: The giant Snake, curled up yet taking up the majority of the room. The room itself was a giant sphere decorated with torches and painted with blood, as large as the Titan Dweevil's bowl, but with a much more threatening enemy in the center. It stared at Olimar, who was on the ground with a large group of pikmin around him. The Snake stared at him hungrily, licking the air with its tongue. It had one-fourth of its health remaining, but as evidenced by the several holes in the walls and floor that no doubt were used as dodges, Olimar hadn't done much of the hurting.

And then it smelt my blood. It turned toward me, and it seemed to grow happier. It dove into the ground, and Olimar got to his feet.

"Darn it all to Murtiv!" Olimar muttered. He faced the wall, backing up to the center of the room. He saw me, and nearly screamed. "What are you doing here? Jason! Why? You should be in bed!"

"I came to help," I muttered weakly. I pointed behind me. "I brought reinforcements."

"No!" Olimar said and ran to me. "Get out of here, quickly, please! You aren't safe here. Get back to the ship! Now!"

"I can help," I said, smiling weakly. "We can do this!"

"Darn it, Jason, this isn't the time! Leave!" He took my pikmin and pushed me away, into the tunnel. I fell to my feet, but Olimar didn't notice. The Snake had returned, and it snapped at him. He swarmed the Snake's body; they got a few good shots off, but its health dropped a miniscule amount. It shook the pikmin off, jumped into the air, and dove into the ground, taking a pikmin with him.

Olimar looked at me getting to my feet. "Jason!" He called. "You better not help me! You will die if you try!"

I limped up to him and stared him in the eyes. "If I die, then I'm dying on my own terms. If I die, I don't want you to feel guilty about not saving me. If I die, then I want you to spend the next eleven days making a new pikmin army and coming down here on your last day to fight the Snake. If I die, then know that I died trying to save both of us. If I die, and I'm not down here, then you'll blame yourself, and Olimar…" I paused, grabbing a pikmin. "…I don't want you to ever do that."

The Snake reappeared, this time from the ceiling, staring down at us.

I looked at Olimar, who was looking at me with a mixture of emotions. Anguish. Fear. Anger. Pride. "Come on," I said. I limped forward with much more strength than I had. "Let's kill that Snake."


	28. Chapter 27: Snake

Chapter 27: Snake

Before I begin the battle, let me remind you of the terrible condition I was in. My right shoulder was bleeding and in a throbbing pain, and if I turned my head too much to the right I was punished by a searing pain. I had been breathing toxic for the past 24 or so hours, impeding much of my movement and slowing my already pathetic brain. Every time I breathed hard or walked even a few inches, I became light-headed, nauseous, or both. My legs felt like cinderblocks, so I could barely move. I had lost a lot of blood. I was stuck breathing either the heavy scent of blood or my own vomit. I was essentially running on determination and adrenaline; my own strength had long faded away. And, of course, a giant reptile was about to kill me.

Do you know why I went down that tunnel toward certain death? Stupidity and a false sense of bravery. But also because I realized that for the entire adventure, Olimar constantly showed selflessness and bravery, maturity and intelligence that I'll never reach. And I wanted to show him that I could help, that despite my injuries I could still fight by his side. That I could be just as strong as him, as my hero.

But it was for so much more. I was on my deathbed. Olimar knew that, and he was willing to risk everything to see me safe. And if he failed, if I died because he couldn't kill the Snake in time, I knew that he'd give up; he'd be too guilty to continue fighting. He'd submit to the creatures of the planet and perish. So I wanted him to know that even if he failed, he had to continue, to rebuild and conquer. I meant every word before the fight. I was prepared to die, and if Olimar felt that it was his fault that I die, our entire plight would have been a wasted effort. I needed Olimar to know that the decision to die was mine and mine alone, that it was not in his control and therefore that it was not, nor would it ever be his fault.

And so we faced the Snake with half the day remaining, with one fourth of its hp remaining, with none of my strength remaining, as it stared at us and licked the air. It slid from the ceiling and curled up along the opposite wall. Olimar looked at me worryingly before grabbing a pikmin and stepping forward. The Snake swiped at us with its tail, thankfully unable to reach us. We stepped backward, hugging the wall, as it swiped again, covering most of the arena.

"If only we could jump," Olimar muttered.

I looked around the arena. There were several holes scattered around that hadn't closed up. This meant something. But I couldn't think straight. Too much pain. I doubled over, and the Snake slithered up so that it was above us. It was about to pounce, but Olimar threw a couple pikmin to distract it. They knocked off another sliver of health, but the main purpose was to buy us some time. The Snake shook them off, sending them flying in different directions, and decided to chase after them.

"Olimar," I whispered as he picked me up. "The holes… the Snake's been digging them right? So don't they… connect?"

Olimar looked around. "Jason, you're a genius." He ran over to the nearest hole as the Snake ate the last pikmin. He crawled inside and started climbing. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reach the hole in time, which left me facing the Snake alone.

"Come on. Time to finish this," I whispered.

The Snake tilted its head, curiously observing me. It sniffed the air once more, most likely to sense Olimar, but the blood splattering the walls masked Olimar's scent. It lifted its head up, opened its mouth to reveal several sharp fangs, and pounced on me.

I fell to the side, and the Snake missed me. It crashed into the wall. But unlike every other creature, the Snake decided to dig through it instead of stunning itself. I took the opportunity to move closer to the center of the arena, practically rolling down the slope and unable to stand up. My vision was blurring now, and Olimar was nowhere to be seen.

"Stop hiding, you coward," I gasped. "Show your stupid head so I can snap it off."

The Snake didn't hear me, but it obeyed nevertheless. It popped out of the wall, sending debris throughout the arena, and hissed at me. Its hiss echoed throughout, and even through the muffled helmet I felt the urge to cover my ears. I couldn't, so I had to suffer. The Snake searched around, half of its body embedded in the wall, for me, and when it found me it pounced again.

This time, Olimar appeared, from the ceiling. With all of his pikmin. He landed on the Snake, throwing it off balance and missing me by centimeters. I was covered in dust. However, the Snake had been stunned by the crash, and Olimar took the opportunity to swarm it.

And I'm sure you remember that the Snake had been burning the previous day, due to the Emperor Bulblax's acid. Well, the part that had been burned was the Snake's top half, on which Olimar had not only landed, but also swarmed. This was its weak spot, and as the pikmin swarmed it, it hissed in pain. A good chunk of its health was taken off, but the pain awoke it much quicker than it should. To put it bluntly: after Olimar attacked, the Snake was stunned for less than a second. It shook everything off and dug into the floor.

Olimar ran over to me and picked me up. "Are you okay?"

"Terrific," I said. "You did fantastic."

"This time, you're coming with me," Olimar said. "I'm terribly sort that I forgot you." We walked over to the wall and crawled inside. As we ascended, we heard hundreds of sounds, an orchestra of slithering. They came from all around, echoing through the walls to deafening levels. And then a rumbling which quickly grew to shake us from our climb. Olimar slid down the tunnel while I, who was on near-level ground, had to hold on for dear life not to fall. And then, through the gap between us, the Snake tunneled through, causing the tunnel walls to collapse. A wall of rubble separated us.

"Olimar!" I shouted, and the effort it took to shout spun my head. I lost my grip, but the newly created wall stopped my fall.

"Jason!" A muffled scream through the debris. "You climb up to the ceiling and drop down on the Snake. I shall distract it."

"But… you have most of the pikmin," I whispered. I looked at the few I had. Seven in total. "And we can't get up here again. This must count." I continued the crawl. I neared a hole as the tunnel began to slope downward once more. I pushed against the wall while leaning over the hole to see below. Olimar was standing in the center, glancing at the ceiling occasionally and turning in circles. The Snake hadn't shown itself.

And then a crash. Olimar jumped and turned to his right. He stepped backward, and a hissing filled the room. I grabbed a pikmin and inched forward. The Snake flashed below me and disappeared just as fast. And then again in a different direction. And a crash and flight of rubble.

"It's too quick," I called.

"I'll think of something, Jason," Olimar replied.

Another crash. Olimar stood his ground, and shouted for the Snake to "attack me!" The Snake obliged and dove at him, tightly curling up around him and sniffing the air. Olimar struggled to break free, but its grip was far too strong.

"Olimar!" I shouted. My mistake: the Snake heard. It searched to the ceiling, looking for the source of the noise. As each second passed, its grip tightened. I grabbed another pikmin, let go of the wall, and fell from the sky. I landed on the Snake's head and threw the pikmin onto two pink spots on its back. It hissed in pain and released Olimar, and I slid down its back and onto the ground. Olimar swarmed the creature as it fell. Within a few seconds, the Snake had shaken everything off and burrowed, but it had little health remaining.

I was on my back, breathing heavily, my vision blurring and blackened. Olimar ran over to me and hoisted me onto his shoulder. "Excellent work, Jason! We've nearly killed it!"

"It's not dead," I whispered. "We can't afford…" I couldn't speak. I actually spat blood. The force from the fall had broken the stitches, and blood was seeping through the suit. But I couldn't feel the pain. Blood dripped from my mouth.

"Jason!" Olimar screamed. He carried me to a wall and set me down. "I'll protect you!"

The Snake reappeared, this time over our heads, hanging from the ceiling beyond our pikmins' reach. It hissed as it stared at us. I tried to speak, but even opening my mouth was too much. I slumped against the wall, watching only through a slit.

Olimar looked at me one last time before grabbing two pikmin and throwing them to the ceiling. The two pikmin grabbed onto the Snake and started whacking, and the Snake hissed once more. It tried shaking them off, but it dislodged itself as it moved. It crashed into the ground, sending dust flying. Olimar grabbed another two pikmin and threw them into the cloud, and then another pair, and then another. Wherever the pikmin flew, they managed to hit the Snake.

Several seconds passed as the dust cleared, revealing the Snake to be alive with more than a sliver remaining. All of the pikmin had gone.

"It devoured them!" Olimar shouted. "And it gained their health!" He turned to me again. "Can you move?"

I couldn't. Not even to shake my head.

Olimar turned back to the Snake. "Then I shall kill you myself." He grabbed another pikmin and charged at the creature. It opened its mouth wide and dove at him, but he swiftly dodged and whacked the Snake with the pikmin. The Snake dove into the ground, but it reappeared shortly from the wall behind Olimar. Right above my head. Rocks rained down around me and a few hit my head, causing my limp body to slide to the ground. I heard a clank and a metal object fell to my left.

The Snake hissed and dove at Olimar once again. Olimar stood his ground with pikmin in both hands, eyes determined, face set. The Snake was right on him before he moved. He moved three steps backward as the Snake dove once more into the ground, but Olimar did something incredible. He ran onto the Snake's back as it fell into the ground and started hitting the creature again and again, each time with a force of anger and revenge. He screamed as he struck the creature several times before it disappeared beneath the dirt. He dropped to the ground and replaced pikmin.

The Snake reappeared from the ceiling, but it looked pained and confused. It turned itself around several times. It then dropped, with no control over itself. Its health had disappeared. The creature was dead.

Out from its mouth popped two ship parts: The Positron Generator and the Secret Safe. The last ones we needed. We had thirty pikmin left. The day was nearly over. There wasn't enough time.

Olimar ran over to me and lifted me up. "We did it," he said. "We beat the Snake!"

"W-w-well d-d-d…done" I said. I had no strength left. I didn't know how I looked, but Olimar looked terrified.

"We're going home," Olimar said. He lifted me up and walked over to the ship parts. He looked longingly at his Secret Safe, but then he turned to me and swarmed the Generator.

"Where you picked me up," I said, barely audible. "There's something metal. Carry it."

"I have to carry you."

"Let the pikmin." We could spare five. So Olimar set me down gently and let the pikmin carry me. Their soft hands and soothing voices helped ease me. Olimar's hand reassuringly on my shoulder helped infinitely.

And so we left the literal Hellhole, the body of the Snake and its children forever rotting underneath the ground. A fate well deserved for choosing to attack us and nearly kill me.


	29. Epilogue

Epilogue:

We exited the tunnel to near night, the pikmin carrying the treasure into the ship just as the clock struck 10. Finally, the ship was ready for space travel.

"We couldn't collect all of the ship parts," Olimar said. "But I'm ready just to escape the planet."

Enough of my strength had recovered to allow me to speak. But with that strength came pain. A lot of it. I grunted in it whenever I tried to speak. "Agreed."

We climbed into the ship and said goodbye to the pikmin. They left to their respective onions and left the planet's surface. Where did they go? I'd like to think they went to help their red brethren repair their ship. They certainly had to stick together.

Olimar set the ship on course to home and proceeded to work on my shoulder. He gave me blood tablets, restitched the wound, and gave me plenty of food pills.

"We finally have our electricity," Olimar said. "So you'll get to try those fried noodles you've been craving."

"Can't wait," I said. I was going to recover.

After Olimar finished the operation, he showed me the object he had recovered: a bottle cap. "Why did you want me to collect this?" He asked.

"How many pokos were in your secret safe?"

"Nearly a year's salary: 90."

I smiled. "Then you'll find out."

We watched the space fly by in silence. "Jason, I want to thank you for everything you've done."

"I'd thank you as well, but by the time I finished the list we'd be back on Hocotate."

Olimar chuckled. "I don't suppose you've reconsidered my offer?"

As great as the offer was, I wanted to go back home. "If I'm not gone, then yes."

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly, I started to glow. The pain, all of my wounds, all of my exhaustion were gone. Olimar and I gasped simultaneously. My suit had gone, and I was wearing my Earth clothes.

"I guess I mean this," I said. Olimar was staring at me in a stunned silence. "Olimar, you are my hero. I can't imagine anything greater than helping you escape. I… I'm going home. So goodbye. If we meet again, I hope we can reminisce."

Olimar looked at the ground. "Then it's goodbye?" He didn't question anything. He trusted me. "Then I wish you the greatest of luck, Jason." We shook hands. "I don't suppose I should mention you to anyone."

I laughed, harder than I'd ever done and much harder than I should have. "If you do, they'll commit you. Can't let that happen after all we've done." I winked. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye, my friend."

I blinked.

I was back on Earth. Facedown, drooling, in front of my television. My left shoulder was in pain, a scratch from hitting the television. It was yesterday. Not a few minutes after I had fallen unconscious.

I spent the night thinking about my adventure, recalling everything that had happened. I'm sure that it wasn't a dream, that it really happened. You know me. I can't think of anything that complex.

Olimar's safe now. We helped each other to survive. That's the point. Survival. Cooperation. Friendship. They were the point of…

My Adventure with Olimar.


End file.
